Dr. Eimear Cotter:

I thank the Chairman and committee for inviting the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to discuss the topic of compliance with the nitrates directive and its implications for Ireland. I am joined by EPA senior management colleagues Ms Mary Gurrie and Dr. Jenny Deakin, who deal with water quality monitoring and assessment, and Mr. Patrick Byrne, who leads the national agricultural inspection programme in the EPA's office of environmental enforcement.

Clean water is essential for our health and well-being, our economy and the environment. Water quality in Ireland is not as good as it should be and we are not on track to meet our legally binding water quality objectives by 2027. While all sectors have a role to play, agriculture is the primary source of nitrate losses to water and contributes a significant proportion of phosphate losses, in addition to waste water.

The EPA published the water quality indicators for 2023 in June 2024. These indicators provide an update on water quality in advance of the full three-yearly assessment, which will be published in 2025. Overall, water quality indicators for 2023 show no significant change in water quality compared to 2022 and no sign of an overall improvement. The key findings are that there has been no significant change in the biological quality of rivers or lakes. While improvements are happening in some areas, these are being offset by declines elsewhere. Biological quality will not improve until nutrient levels reduce in water bodies where they are too high. Average nitrate levels are largely unchanged since 2022 and remain too high in the east, south east and south. In 2023, nitrate levels exceeded the level needed to support good water quality in 42% of rivers, 20% of groundwaters and 17% of estuarine and coastal waters. Average phosphorus levels were also largely unchanged between 2022 and 2023 and remain too high in 27% of rivers and 35% of lakes.

In order to reduce nutrient losses from agriculture, measures and action must be targeted. The EPA has invested in and developed a range of tools and resources to support farmers and their advisers in identifying what type of measure needs to be implemented, and where, to deliver improvements in water quality. These include the EPA’s targeting agricultural measures map and pollution impact potential maps, both of which are publicly available. Reducing nitrogen losses to water requires a reduction in the amount of nitrogen leaching through freely draining soils. This requires a reduction in the nitrogen surplus through measures such as improving the nitrogen use efficiency, better nutrient management planning and reducing the overall nitrogen load. The lag time between nitrogen reduction measures and reduced nitrogen concentrations in water bodies can vary depending on the soil type and weather. However, if nitrogen reduction measures are implemented at scale and in the critical source areas where most leaching occurs, we would expect to see signs of improvements in nitrogen levels within six months to a year at a national level.

Specifically related to phosphorous, it is critical that the flow pathway between the land and the water body is broken. This includes, for example, preventing soiled water or effluent running into a drain or watercourse, or by maintaining a buffer zone to intercept flow and nutrients at the area where the run off occurs. Breaking the pathway, if implemented at scale by all farmers, should reduce phosphate levels and deliver improvements in water quality relatively quickly, particularly in our freshwater rivers and lakes.

With regard to compliance and enforcement, in 2022 the EPA was assigned an expanded role to oversee local authority agricultural inspections under the fifth nitrates action programme. The EPA, in consultation with local authorities and other relevant bodies, has developed a national agricultural inspection programme for the period 2023 to 2025. The aim of the national agricultural inspection programme is to improve water quality by improving the level of compliance with the good agricultural practice, GAP, regulations. This includes achieving consistency in dealing with non-compliances such as use of enforcement actions and cross reporting to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Based on data from the national agricultural inspection programme for 2022 and 2023, non-compliances with the GAP regulations are being detected on more than 30% of farms inspected. It is clear that compliance levels need to improve significantly to protect water quality and prevent pollution from agricultural sources.

In summary, all farmers, and not just those in derogation, have a role to play in reducing nutrient losses to water. The science and knowledge are available to know what the problems with water quality are, where they are and how to solve them. While water quality is recognised as a high priority for the agricultural sector, and there is much action under way, we need to see a significant increase in the scale and pace of implementation of measures to reduce nutrient losses. This should include full compliance with the GAP regulations and significant improvements in nitrogen use efficiency to reduce the nitrogen surplus. We may also need to see an overall reduction in load in some catchments where nitrate levels are substantially in excess of the levels needed to support good water quality. The EPA will continue to work constructively and collaboratively with relevant Government Departments and agencies to provide the evidence base to inform policy and action to improve water quality.