Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 January 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals

Mr. Tom Medlycott:

There is a slight change in how they set out whether soil is healthy or unhealthy. The proposed directive originally said the soil should be healthy or unhealthy. I understand those were the two definitions. To be healthy it had to meet all of the criteria set out in the annex to the directive. It has now changed slightly because we have had our first revision to the directive, which was circulated in mid-January. It has moved to a more graded process. There are designations of good, moderate and poor. Good meets all of the criteria in the annex. Moderate can be missing or failing one of the criteria. Poor means it fails on two of the criteria set out in the annex. That is where it is now. We were supporting that change to the directive because it was a binary thing about whether the soil was healthy or unhealthy. There is now more flexibility around that.

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