Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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We have highly integrated supply chains on the island of Ireland, as the Deputy will be aware. Farmers and other professional fertiliser end users can continue to purchase fertiliser from Northern Ireland and vice versa. We are keen to ensure that trade continues. We do not want to discommode that trade as normal between two jurisdictions. However, this proposed legislation does place a legal obligation on anyone importing fertiliser into the State to register as a fertiliser economic operator and to submit data on imports to a national fertiliser database. We have developed a system to make the registration process as simple as possible for farmers. I acknowledge there are concerns in the industry and the concerns it has in relation to the issue. There have been discussions on this matter in the consultative committee meetings. We cannot legislate for other jurisdictions, but my Department has been in close contact with colleagues in the area. In terms of farm controls, which are risk-based and include specific checks on the import of fertilisers, these checks will be a key focus of on-farm controls in the roll-out of the national fertiliser database.