Kerry County Council is to conduct an investigation into the spreading of sludge from a sewage treatment plant, following complaints of "obnoxious" smells and children becoming ill.
Mr Oliver Ring, Director of Environment and Water Services with the council, yesterday acknowledged there had been a difficulty for a period of one month recently and there had been "some bad smells".
All the sludge taken from the treatment plant was pasteurised through heat treatment and contained "no pathogens", he said.
However, Kerry county councillors said school children in the vicinity of Killarney, mainly in rural areas to the north of the town, had become ill as the result of the strong smells after sludge had been spread on agricultural land.
Sludge from treatment plants was sometimes mixed with animal slurry and then spread on the land, Mr Ring said. In all cases farmers and contractors had to adhere to a Department of Agriculture code of practice for the spreading of any type of slurry.