Dr. Max Potterton:

I have a few points to make regarding the proposals in the Bill for fertiliser regulation, the register and sales data. An exact definition of the terms "fertiliser product" and "fertiliser manufacturing" should be included in the Bill. The IFA does not consider it fair and reasonable to treat farmers as fertiliser importers if they buy or purchase fertiliser in Northern Ireland. We would like clarification as to whether, if farmers purchase fertilisers in Northern Ireland, they will be classified as fertiliser economic operators and professional end users at the same time. There must be flexibility for fertiliser economic operators, as they are referred to in the Bill, to use the fertiliser database to sell and transfer into the Republic of Ireland. There are several references in the scheme of the Bill to fines and sanctions in the event of fertiliser economic operators failing to meet their obligations. If they so fail, our view is that farmers must not be held accountable.

The requirement for the submission of fertiliser product details and quantities owned or held on a premises, either at regular intervals or even in real time, has the potential to become very onerous and overly demanding for farmers. The IFA has concerns about farmers who may not be technologically literate or good with IT. Many farmers already employ agents and consultants to fill out applications for payments and schemes on agfood.ieand this will likely extend to the fertiliser database as well. It will increase administrative costs with little or no direct economic return for farmers. The statistical returns into the database should be kept to a minimum and should take place within the closed spreading period and away from any major farm payment scheme deadlines. Further clarifications are needed on what additional details may be required at a future time for submission to the database by professional fertiliser users.

Moving to the processing of information, it is clearly stated that the use of information compiled in the database is to inform policy and control programmes and reduce inorganic fertiliser use. The IFA is concerned that 2023 will be used as a baseline or reference year to inform this decision-making. The unprecedented increase in fertiliser prices and widespread predictions of more restricted use and availability in 2023 must be taken into account by the Minister and his officials.

There must be clarification regarding the anonymised data that could be submitted to third parties from the database.

My final point relates to the serving of notifications and notice periods. Should an inspection of a premises be required in respect of fertiliser, sufficient notice must be provided by officials and entry must be strictly by arrangement only.