Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I had a very open engagement with the IFA, as, indeed, did the Tánaiste on that occasion. I had the same conversation with the IFA that day that I had with the ICMSA the previous week, because I had not had an opportunity the previous week to engage with the IFA. We have been working together very closely on this. I have been working very closely with the IFA, the ICMSA and all of the farming organisations in regard to this challenge that we are clear is facing us, and especially clear since 30 June, when the water quality data for 2022 was published and finalised, which would mean us dropping to 220 kg of nitrogen per hectare.

After that map was published, I contacted this committee and asked my officials to brief it on where we were at. Alongside that engagement with this committee, I also engaged with the water quality working group, which I had established, in terms of how we would actually put the case to the Commission. I updated the IFA last week on that and listened with regard to the real impacts this will have for farmers, which I am very much aware of and which they were very clear on. They were also clear we would look to see how we would work to support them in that. I was also clear, in terms of the outcome of the meeting I had with the Commissioner, that the Commission is adamant and has given absolute certainty that there will be no amendment to our current derogation until it comes up for renegotiation again at the end of 2025.