Mr. Jack Nolan:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak with it on the topic of the nitrates directive and Ireland’s new nitrates action programme 2022. I am joined by my colleague, Mr. Bernard Harris, who is an agricultural inspector with the Department and a co-chair of the nitrates expert group.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is fully engaged in developing and supporting a new revised and strengthened nitrates action programme and nitrates derogation in 2022. This is a key commitment in the programme for Government. From the Department's perspective, the agricultural sector is committed to stabilising and improving water quality. The review of the nitrates action programme provides a timely opportunity to review the impact of agriculture on our water environment and support agriculture's ambition to stabilise and improve water while seeking as many co-benefits for climate, air and biodiversity as possible.

The Departments involved have built strong relationships to collectively develop a cohesive policy response in delivering and implementing policy to improve water quality to coincide with the delivery of the next river basin management plan. The Departments also work closely with the Environmental Protection Agency in reviewing water quality monitoring and water quality trends and investigating and understanding the pressures from nutrients, pesticides and sediment losses from agriculture.

To develop future agricultural measures for the protection of the environment, Teagasc was asked to review and model the impact of potential measures. This work concluded that a number of additional measures will further minimise nutrient losses to the environment. The nitrates derogation, which is 250 kg of nitrogen from livestock manure per hectare, was considered environmentally safe, based on Ireland’s grass-based system of production.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been at the forefront of assessing the regulatory baseline for agriculture. It has been proactive in reviewing and balancing measures to minimise the impact of agriculture on the environment. Ireland has been a leader in the EU in protecting the environment through a strong nitrates regulation that includes both nitrogen and phosphorus, unlike most other EU member states.

The Department initiated the voluntary review of the nitrates derogation in 2019. The nitrates derogation covers 7,000 farmers. It is an important facility for the livestock sector. The review introduced additional measures to improve on-farm efficiencies and help reduce agriculture's impact on the environment. Additional measures have been introduced for a further 5,000 farmers in 2021. These measures are being targeted to farmers to improve environmental efficiencies. The Department has been aligning agriculture policies and strategies to ensure we arrive at a coherent approach to meeting agriculture’s commitments to the environmental challenges of climate, air, water and biodiversity.

Agriculture has a significant role to play in meeting our environmental targets. The strong support and work being delivered by farmers to address our environmental challenges must be acknowledged.

I thank the committee for its attention and time today. We will be happy to take any questions from members.