North Cork Co-operative Creameries in Kanturk in Co Cork has been fined €8,000 and ordered to pay more than €3,600 in costs and expenses after the company pleaded guilty to charges arising from an illegal discharge of effluent into a tributary of the River Blackwater last summer.
The charges arose on foot of an investigation by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) following reports of a discharge into the River Allow at Pulleen, Kanturk, on 22 June 2025.
IFI Environmental Officer Michael McPartland told Mallow District Court that he went to the scene on foot of a report and observed a grey liquid discharge coming from a pipe.
The pipe was from North Cork Co-op's wastewater treatment plant and the discharge extended for some 450 metres with the river becoming "progressively cloudier" nearer the discharge pipe.
The company pleaded guilty to one charge of causing or permitting polluting matter to enter the River Allow on the date in question in contravention of Section 3(1) of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977.
It also pleaded guilty to a second charge of permitting or causing deleterious matter to fall into the River Allow, otherwise than under and in accordance with a licence granted to the company by the Minister for the Environment contrary to Section 171 of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959.
The court was told no fish were killed as a result of the discharge and solicitor Sinéad Martyn for the Co-op said she wanted to put it on the court record that there was "no causal link" between her client's operations and the fish kill on the River Blackwater in August 2025 which killed 42,000 fish.
Ms Martyn said the Co-op had invested €1m in remedial works at its wastewater treatment plant to ensure there are no further such discharges.
IFI Solicitor Vincent Coakley said the Co-op's licence to discharge into the River Allow is currently suspended by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Judge Colm Roberts noted the maximum fine in respect of each charge was €5,000 but he said he would give the company credit for their guilty pleas and he fined them €4,000 on each of the two charges and ordered them to pay IFI costs and expenses of €3,650.
Afterwards, a spokesperson for IFI said it was satisfied with the outcome.
