Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Nolan for the question. Last year Ireland secured renewal of our nitrates derogation covering the period 2022 to 2025. As part of that approval, the European Commission attached increased conditionality to the derogation in the granting of it, including a requirement that we would conduct a two-year water quality review. Its implementing decision states that where water quality is poor or where worsening trends occur over the period 2021 to 2022, the maximum stocking rate must reduce from 250 kg of organic nitrogen livestock manure per hectare to 220 kg from January 2024.

Affected farmers in that instance would have three choices to bring their stocking rate in line with their new lower limit, if they were farming at a rate between 220 kg and 250 kg. The three options would be obtaining more land, exporting nutrients to other farms, or reducing livestock numbers. That is something that farmers in that situation will have to look at to adjust, if they are in that range. The Department has had a number of meetings with farm organisations and industry representatives on this topic this year. I am very aware of the pressure and the concern farmers have in this regard. Discussions with stakeholders on this commenced in spring of last year. Since then I, along with officials, have worked to communicate the risks associated with this conditionality that was attached to our derogation and the need for us as a country to show significant improvements in water quality if we are to maintain our nitrates derogation in the long term. The Government very much recognises that farmers have made significant efforts and continue to do so to address water quality. The challenge for us all is that the level of nutrients in many of our water courses remains too high, as evidenced by the reports from the Environment Protection Agency, EPA.

I have established the agriculture water quality working group with all farm representatives on it so that we can work together on this issue in the short term to try to achieve flexibilities with regard to the mid-term review, and in the more medium term to ensure we retain and get a renewal of our nitrates derogation post 2025.

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