Useful Data for Irish River Conservation / Water Quality

Background

Biosolids are produced during the treatment process in wastewater treatment plants operated by or for or on behalf of Uisce Éireann.

Specialist private contractors or sub-contractors (depending on whether the wastewater treatment plant is operated by a third-party on behalf of Uisce Éireann) are engaged to arrange for the transport, storage, treatment (if necessary) and recovery of biosolids on agricultural land.

Please note, Uisce Éireann is not party to any agreement with landowners for the spreading of biosolids. Uisce Éireann’s contractual arrangements are with our third-party plant operators or sludge management contractors.

As you are aware, each such private company is required by legislation to produce a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) and file the NMP with the relevant local authority. Under Article 8 of S.I. No. 148/1998 (Waste Management (Use of Sewage Sludge in Agriculture) Regulations, 1998), each local authority is required to maintain a Sludge Register containing specified information relating to the use of sewage sludge in agriculture.

The purpose is to provide transparency and enable regulatory oversight of sludge landspreading activities.

The register must contain details including:
(a) the quantities of sludge produced and the quantities supplied for use in agriculture in their functional area;
(b) the composition and properties of the sludge;
(c) the treatment which the sludge has undergone;
(d) the name and address of each recipient of the sludge and the location of each site where the sludge is to be used.

Therefore, the information that you seek is held by the local authorities

In terms of the information held by Uisce Éireann, we would respond as follows:

Volumes of Biosolids Delivered

You have requested access to “All records identifying the approximately 130 farms currently receiving Uisce Éireann biosolids and the volumes delivered to each farm per year.”

Access is granted to environmental information showing the annual volumes of biosolids delivered to each recipient farm. Please find attached PDF

By County

Ran the numbers via nearest-county-centroid matching (a reasonable approximation, not exact boundary lookup).

County	Sites	2025 (t)	Q1 2026 (t)	Combined (t)	% of total
Meath	39	39,622.4	6,491.3	46,113.7	15.0%
Roscommon	76	33,187.2	5,726.1	38,913.3	12.7%
Carlow	41	19,505.9	14,144.8	33,650.7	11.0%
Laois	27	17,109.6	6,285.8	23,395.4	7.6%
Kerry	31	18,492.9	3,950.7	22,443.6	7.3%
Galway	20	15,398.7	4,197.1	19,595.8	6.4%
Kilkenny	13	12,632.1	4,658.4	17,290.5	5.6%
Wicklow	11	12,013.4	3,278.3	15,291.7	5.0%
Cork	31	12,713.9	1,273.6	13,987.5	4.6%
Tipperary	9	9,350.6	4,251.4	13,602.0	4.4%
Westmeath	15	7,483.6	3,784.7	11,268.3	3.7%
Kildare	18	7,525.9	2,937.6	10,463.5	3.4%
Wexford	9	8,189.1	462.4	8,651.5	2.8%
Waterford	11	6,981.2	1,278.1	8,259.3	2.7%
Mayo	5	4,487.7	2,200.7	6,688.4	2.2%
Limerick	5	4,672.5	67.2	4,739.7	1.5%
Offaly	5	3,725.9	967.0	4,692.9	1.5%
Dublin	4	2,698.6	0.0	2,698.6	0.9%
Cavan	2	2,478.6	78.2	2,556.8	0.8%
Longford	5	1,299.8	0.0	1,299.8	0.4%
Louth	3	1,225.4	0.0	1,225.4	0.4%
Leitrim	1	260.0	0.0	260.0	0.1%
Donegal	1	157.4	0.0	157.4	0.1%
Total	382	241,212.4	66,033.4	307,245.8	100.0%

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-RtmT4qbUUoFAPn2X8kb00SKv9W5krSG?usp=sharing

Role of Public Lands in Delivering on the Government’s Objective of Improving Socioeconomic, Climate, Biodiversity, and Water and Air Quality Outcomes

Note: DAFM certified (29-5-26) and issued (2-6-26) a felling licence after receiving correspondence from the applicants solicitor (29-5-26) despite the file only recently having been placed on the Inspector’s worklist. The Inspector didn’t visit the site. The licence was a new application after a previous licence for the site was cancelled at appeal. The new licence is now at appeal.

‘All records identifying the approximately 130 farms currently receiving Uisce Éireann biosolids and the
volumes delivered to each farm per year (2023-2025). Please supply the herd number for each of the farms spreading biosolids’

“Any records, correspondence or inspection notes relating to Bord Bia certified farms that have received biosolids or sewage sludge, and any communications with Bord Bia on the issue (2023-2026).”

AIE-087-2026