Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Jack Nolan:

As part of this review, we are talking about implementation, as Deputy Martin Browne mentioned earlier. We are talking to our own colleagues in cross-compliance too. If you have land on your basic payments that is, say, 100 miles away, you will be at a higher risk for inspection because of nitrates. Not to blame the dairy farmers, but if you are a dairy farmer in Cork and you have land taken up in Mayo or somewhere, that is very unusual and that will put up a red flag in the future and those farmers will be more likely to receive an inspection. That is how that will be dealt with.