Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Farmers need certainty in their businesses, like any other business. The change to the nitrates derogation, which is going from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha, was announced last September but farmers, both dairy and beef, had to have their animals impregnated and their cows and heifers in calf before then. Now they face a situation where they are going to have to slaughter these in-calf animals, which is wilful and totally wrong. It is obscene and grotesque. I am asking that the deadline be extended to allow farmers to at least have their production line, to have their calves born this year as normal, as they expected to be able to do when they put the animals in calf. It is shocking, especially in light of the world food situation, that we would be destroying our animals here. In fairness to farmers, they need certainty. As I said, when they made decisions about next year's animals, they had no notion that the derogation was going to be changed and that they would have to cull these cows or have them slaughtered in a factory. This is a shocking situation.

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