Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is complex. Many factors have an impact on water quality. Land type and soil type are important, as is how nutrients and nutrient load are managed. Soil type can vary from field to field. It is challenging. What is done in one field, even with a high nutrient load, could have a minimal impact whereas what is done in another field with a lower nutrient load could have more of an impact. That is how complex it is. When we look at how our specific derogation is approached at European level, we see that ultimately it is an exemption that gives us the flexibility to be at higher than 170 kg N/ha. The directive itself and the derogations are very much focused on the overall figure, whether that is 170 kg N/ha, 250 kg N/ha as we have at the moment, or 220 kg N/ha as we are going to. That is very much part of the equation. At the moment, the three countries with a derogation are Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Netherlands is on its last derogation. It has been told by the Commission it will not get another one. By the time we come to renegotiate at the end of 2025, we will be the only country that has it. The Netherlands is being dropped down from its current two rates of 220 kg N/ha and 240 kg N/ha, and next year it will be on 210 kg N/ha and 230 kg N/ha. The following year it will be on 190 kg N/ha and 200 kg N/ha and the year after that, 170 kg N/ha. It is in a very different situation from us. We have much better water quality than the Netherlands, but it has a derogation. It is one of the three countries to have that at the moment. Denmark’s derogation is up for renegotiation. It runs out at the end of July 2024. Denmark is currently renegotiating its derogation and this will continue over the next few months. It is currently at the maximum of 230 kg N/ha.

Those figures of 170 kg N/ha, 220 kg N/ha or 250 kg N/ha are very much part of the derogation process and how the Commission looks at it. However, in terms of the impact it makes at land level and at water quality level, it is quite complex. We have made that argument to the Commission. One of the key arguments I put in my submission to the Commissioner - we discussed this with him when we were seeking an amendment to the derogation and looking for a statutory process to be opened up to do that - was the option of looking at an overall nitrogen loading. I argued that instead of what is currently in our derogation - I refer to the drop in the review from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha, to which we had no choice but to agree - we would look at further drops in the overall maximum that is there for chemical nitrogen. I suggested that we would drop that instead. However, it simply was not possible to get a statutory reopening of the derogation.