Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to speak to the committee on the nitrates directive and Ireland's forthcoming 2022 nitrates action programme. In addition to Mr. Nolan, I am joined by Dr. Kevin Smyth, assistant secretary.

It is important to highlight in the first instance that the regulations governing the nitrates action programme are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, with my Department administering the nitrates derogation that is provided for under the regulation. My Department is fully engaged in developing and supporting a new revised and strengthened programme and derogation for 2022. This is a key commitment in the programme for Government.

The agriculture sector is committed to stabilising and improving water quality. The review of the nitrates action programme provides a timely opportunity to review the impact of agriculture on our water environment and support agriculture's ambitions to stabilise and improve water quality while seeking as many co-benefits for climate, air and biodiversity as possible. My Department is working closely with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to develop a cohesive policy response in delivering and implementing policy on water quality to coincide with the delivery of the next river basin management plan. Both Departments are also working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, on reviewing water quality monitoring and water quality trends, and investigating and understanding the pressures from nutrient, pesticides and sediment losses from agriculture.

My Department has been at the forefront of assessing the regulatory baseline for agriculture and proactive in reviewing and balancing measures to minimise the impact of agriculture on the environment. Ireland has been a leader in the EU in protecting the environment through a strong approach that includes nitrogen and phosphorus in our regulations unlike most other EU member states where nitrogen is the sole nutrient regulated. However, we must recognise that recent trends in water quality have not been in the right direction and my Department is fully supportive of working with farmers to reverse this.

We initiated a voluntary review of the nitrates derogation in 2019, covering 7,000 farmers who availed of the facility. That review introduced additional measures on such farms to improve on-farm efficiencies and reduce agriculture’s impact on the environment, for example, the use of trailing shoe technology and preventing access to watercourses. Additional measures have also been introduced for a further 5,000 farmers in 2021 who do not avail of the derogation but are farming at a similarly high level of intensity.

In order to develop future agricultural measures for the protection of the environment as part of the current nitrates action programme review process, Teagasc was asked to review and model the impact of future potential measures. This work concluded that a number of additional measures would minimise nutrient losses to the environment further. The nitrates derogation, which provides for 250 kg of nitrogen from livestock manure per hectare, was considered environmentally safe based on Ireland's grass-based system of production.

My Department and I have been aligning agricultural policies and strategies to ensure a coherent approach to meeting agriculture's commitments to the environmental challenges of climate, air, water and biodiversity. Agriculture has a significant role to play in meeting environmental targets across all of these issues. The strong support and work being delivered by farmers to address these environmental issues must be acknowledged.

A nitrates expert review group has been put in place to review the nitrates action programme and make recommendations on foot of the two periods of consultation earlier this year. That review will shortly conclude. I look forward to considering its recommendations, which I anticipate receiving shortly.

Ireland has applied for a nitrates derogation as provided for in the nitrates directive and that to date has been made available on the basis of strict scientific criteria. In line with the current nitrates action programme, Ireland's current derogation expires on the last day of this year. Ireland is currently negotiating the next nitrates action programme and working through a process to achieve a new programme and derogation. In order to allow these negotiations come to a fruitful conclusion and secure a favourable opinion on Ireland's application, a vote on Ireland's derogation has been postponed until early March, by which time Ireland's new nitrates regulations should be in place.

I thank the committee for its attention and time and will be happy to take questions from members.