Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food
Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
2:00 am
Mr. Bill Callanan:
The way I have described it to farmers is that we have a unique production system in the EU in Ireland as a grass-based grain-fed system without outdoor grazing, etc. With the likes of the UK having left, that is not commonplace across Europe. Many of them are housed system. However, as a member of the European Union, we are not unique in our commitment to the achievement of water framework directive, which requires the achievement of good status. Neither are we unique in our requirements to comply with the habitats directive. That is universal. We have to charter a pathway to ensure compliance with the requirements of those directives. That is common to all, but not in how we do it because we have an outdoor-based system in Ireland.
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