A major farm inspection campaign is about to get underway in Laois, with the county council set to inspect 100 farms in August.

Laois County Council's National Agricultural Inspection Programme (NAIP) team will kick off the inspections, which will focus on specific river catchments, next month.

The NIAP team will include river catchment areas around Raheen and Trumera.

According to Laois County Council it is planning to carry out around 100 farm inspections in these catchment areas

Local authorities across Ireland have to carry out risk-based farm inspections as part of the National Agricultural Inspection Programme (NAIP) which is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The chief aim of NIAP is to "protect and improve water quality in Ireland".

The NAIP is also part of the EPA's oversight role under the Sixth Nitrates Action Programme and the Water Action Plan.

Farm inspections

EPA has set inspection targets for each local authority "using a risk based methodology" that prioritises areas where agricultural activity poses the greatest risk to water quality.

Through the NAIP local authorities are expected to increase the number of initial Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) inspections they carry out to a target 4,500 farm inspections.

Last year local authorities carried out 4,315 initial inspections under the GAP Regulations.

In 2025, the non-compliance rate for initial GAP inspections was 43% - the key reasons for non-compliance included:

Control of soiled water;
Discharges with potential to impact water quality;
Management of farmyard manure and slurry collection and storage.

According to Laois County Council the farm inspections in August will focus on "assessing farmland and farmyard management".

Its water quality environmental team plan to hold a public information meeting next Thursday, (July 23 at 8:00pm) in Portlaoise to share details of the inspection process with farmers.

According to council officials members of the team will be available on the night to chat to farmers about any concerns they might have about the upcoming farm inspections.