Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion

Photo of Paul DalyPaul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives from the ICMSA. For the purpose of my questions I will play devil's advocate. Assuming this new banding is in and we have the worst case scenario, more needs to be done to highlight the consequences, not just for the farmers involved. Does the ICMSA have any idea of the impact the final result - if it is as we seem to be picking up this evening - will have on small rural economies off the farm, including hardware shops and suppliers? There would be a serious knock-on there but do the witnesses have any idea what the effect would be?

Along that line and again playing devil's advocate, the solution to a decrease in cow numbers is to increase land. If enough farmers who will be caught by this took that approach, where would that land come from and what other sectors would the dairy demand for land effect, be it forestry, tillage or farmers in other sectors? Has the ICMSA gone as far as pinpointing how this can have a ripple effect beyond the people it directly affects? Does the ICMSA have any information on that?

The ICMSA is aware of the following point because it is its business. A lot of milk is coming over the Border for processing and rivers and watercourses along the Border do not know any border. Is there a possibility that the co-operatives or processors in the South could be on an uneven playing field? What similar conditions are being implemented in the North or are there any changes? Could we end up with a situation where the co-operatives or processors could fill the vacuum that would be created if there was a reduction in cows here with milk from the North?

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