Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 July 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion

Mr. Bill Callanan:

That is the inherent difficulty. I have said that effort does not equal impact in terms of the environment. I am at this job for quite some time. In 2018, about 408,000 tonnes of chemical nitrogen were applied. I am referring to the elemental figure, not the volume of nitrogen. It is about the amount in the bag. A nitrogen element of 27% means 27 kg in a 100 kg bag. Last year, we were down to 365,000 tonnes, give or take. That is a fairly substantial drop. We were tipping along at around 20% under and ended up 14% under at the end of the year. A certain amount of that was stocks bought forward. I am expecting the reduction will be found to be around 20%. We are aware that this is following through into this year. You would have expected to see a more dramatic impact on water as a result, but certainly the drought-----

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