Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State of taking the matter. I know he is not the line Minister for the Department but I want to draw his attention to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, catchments report issued this week on the assessment of catchments and the reductions in nitrogen concentrations to achieve water quality objectives. The short synopsis of the document is that we have a problem with nitrogen. We have a problem in particular in the south and the east of the country and our indicators are moving in the wrong direction.

I will quote the key highlights in the report:

Elevated nitrogen concentrations in waters is one of the factors that leads to poor water quality outcomes in all waters. Estuaries and coastal waters, and groundwater drinking water supplies are particularly at risk.

There are a number of key catchments of concern with elevated nitrogen concentrations along the south, southeast and east coasts including the Maigue/Deel, Bandon, Lee, Blackwater, Suir, Nore, Barrow, Slaney, Tolka/Liffey and the Boyne river catchments.

Nitrogen concentrations in waters have been increasing since 2013 - between 2013 and 2019, all but one of the catchments of concern showed increasing trends in the amount, or load, of nitrogen discharging to the sea via our rivers.

The nitrogen load discharging to sea needs to be reduced in the catchments of concern to support healthy aquatic ecosystems. The scale of reduction needed ranged from zero in some years, to just over 8,000 tonnes of nitrogen in the Barrow catchment in 2018.

The data show that in the predominantly rural catchments, more than 85% of the sources of nitrogen in the catchment are from agriculture, from chemical and organic fertilisers.

In the case of the Barrow, the Suir and the Nore rivers, the three sisters as they are referred to, which drain upwards of 9,000 sq. km in the south east in their combined catchment, the figure is above 90%. In contrast, the majority of the nitrogen "in [the] Liffey/Tolka catchment, which incorporates Dublin City, is from urban waste water".

The problem is particularly pronounced in the south east, my area. Taking the most up-to-date figures from the report from 2019 and combining the figures from the Nore, the Suir and the Barrow, the report estimates that just over 20,000 tonnes of nitrogen were discharged. That are 20,000 tonnes flowing out between Hook Head and Dunmore East into what is supposedly a special area of conservation. It is flowing past Woodstown where shellfish fisheries are reporting significant mortalities in their oyster harvest. People living in the estuary all their lives report a steep decline in mussels and other shellfish. However, I would caveat that by pointing out that a number of factors may be at play in this.

I am always conscious of the dangers of conflating causation and correlation. The Farming Independentsupplement of the Irish Independenttrumpeted in April 2020 that since the abolition of milk quotas in 2015, there has been a 38% increase in cow numbers and 92% of that increase accrued in Munster and Leinster. When combined with the figures in this report, it leads to an almost inescapable conclusion that the intensification of agriculture in the past decade, in particular in the dairy sector, has placed greater pressure on rivers and watercourses.

I wish to stress a point to the Minister of State in the strongest terms. I wish to dispel a lazy anti-farmer narrative often pushed about the Green Party. I do not for one second blame the individual farmer in this. I have family members who farm. I am from a rural parish myself and I understand farmers have a business to run and a living to make. I do not know any farmer who would not like to reduce his input costs and who would not like to get more bang for his buck in terms of the fertiliser he uses on his land. Are we doing enough as a Government to support farmers in allowing them to make a living while taking pressure off river catchments, the effect of which we are seeing in this report?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for providing an opportunity for the Department to give an overview of the current work being undertaken to address the quality of our water. I apologise to him on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and the senior Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who could not attend this evening, but they and their officials will engage with the Deputy again on this issue.

I welcome the report from the Environmental Protection Agency which highlights one of the serious challenges facing Ireland’s water environment. Our water resources are facing complex pressures and increasing demands from population change and expected further growth in the economy, as well as from a changing climate.

On agricultural nutrients, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is working closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on effective measures to address these issues through the river basin management plan, the nitrates action programme and the CAP strategic plan. Our policy is to ensure we provide the right measure in the right place. As outlined in the river basin management plan for the years 2018 to 2021, and now in the EPA’s report, the pressures on water quality can vary across different catchments, as outlined so well by the Deputy. As a result, it is clear that one-size-fits-all measures are not always fully effective. For example, a free advisory service is now available to farmers in priority areas where the EPA identifies agriculture as a significant pressure on water quality. Where urban wastewater is causing an impact, Irish Water is investing in improved services and infrastructure through its capital investment plan. The Government has also improved targeted financial supports to help bring domestic septic tanks up to standard.

The programme for Government commits Ireland to producing a new, stronger river basin management plan in 2022. The draft plan will be based on three principles that emerged from the Department’s review of the second cycle. First, there is an increased level of ambition. The third cycle plan will need a high level of ambition in response to water quality trends, something the Deputy will welcome and, indeed, he contributed to making sure it was in the programme for Government. Second, on integrated catchment planning, local catchment management plans will be put in place for each of the 46 catchments. This will provide opportunities for greater public participation and engagement of key stakeholders and sectors at a local and regional level. The Deputy is right that many local stakeholders will be happy to engage in different ways and will be content to be part of the solutions. Third, there will be multiple benefits and many of the measures needed to protect and improve water quality can also deliver benefits for biodiversity and climate change.

Ireland’s nitrates action programme is another key instrument in regard to achieving good water quality. It is designed to prevent pollution of surface waters and groundwater from agricultural sources, and to protect and improve water quality. The current regulations run to the end of 2021 and a new nitrates action programme will be published at the beginning of 2022. A second consultation phase on the review of the nitrates action programme will be published in the coming weeks. This review is being led by the nitrates expert group, which includes scientific experts from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Teagasc and the Environmental Protection Agency. The nitrates expert group will assess the most up-to-date scientific evidence and advise the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the measures that should be included in the next action programme. The expert group is also engaging in bilateral discussions with interested stakeholder groups as part of the review.

This review of the programme also gives us an opportunity to ensure it contributes to achieving biodiversity and climate action objectives, as well as water quality objectives. Policy coherence is a key component of protecting our environment and these areas cannot be successfully tackled in isolation.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is preparing Ireland’s CAP strategic plan, which will also make an important contribution to protecting and restoring water quality.

Across all these areas - the revision of the river basin management plan, the nitrates action programme and CAP – the Department is working closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure we see significant improvement in water quality in the years ahead.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State. I welcome that response. It is comprehensive and, in fact, I am going to print it out from the Dáil record, keep it in my office and hold the Minister of State to account on it.

Of the things mentioned by the Minister of State, the river basin management plan is pivotal. He is correct that different areas are undergoing different pressures and some of the mapping that is done as part of the report is very useful on that. The other point the Minister of State makes that is very important is the idea of the right measure in the right place. The report points out that the soil type in a particular area very much influences run-off and how we should look at the nitrogen use that is going to be useful and effective on the land. Farmers have to pay big money to spread nitrogen on their land but analysts say only something like 25% of that makes it into the final product and the rest either ends up in our water courses or, more worrying still when we consider climate change, through volatilisation it ends up in our atmosphere, and it is a very potent greenhouse gas, as the Minister of State knows.

These interventions can be low-cost and high-effect, and even by changing the mix or changing the root profile of the grasses that the farmers are growing, we reduce their input costs, and just changing that root profile increases the amount of nitrogen that stays on the land. Setback distances from rivers are also a very low-cost but effective intervention. It even comes down to things like moving to protected urea rather than the usual nitrogen product. There definitely are solutions.

As the Minister of State said, the key stakeholders in all of this, the farmers, are absolutely ready to work with us on this but it is pivotal that we lead on this as a Government. We have seen declining water quality and it has an effect on our marine environments. We need to turn that around in a way that works for the environment and also for the people who are working on our farms.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for the debate. I know he is genuinely interested in this area and has a commitment to it. He brings a knowledge to the subject and a willingness to work with all stakeholders. He is right that everybody wants to play their part in this area and that they need leadership and assistance from the Government across all Departments, which is key.

I believe we can meet the challenge of protecting and improving our water quality. We all know that we cannot take a business-as-usual approach. It must be a sincere collective effort to reverse recent water quality decline as the causes and answers are not within the grasp of just a few individual groups or sectors. Everyone needs healthy and well protected water catchments and the Government is working to ensure collective collaboration to the benefit of all.

The EPA’s most recent report highlights the challenges we face as a country and society, yet we also have the policy instruments to find a way forward to address these challenges. If we have a full cross-departmental approach to this through government, we can achieve greater results on the next assessments. I believe the programme for Government sets out a path to achieve that, as referenced earlier.

Building on the work during the current plan, the new river basin management plan will describe the main pressures and activities affecting water status, set out the environmental objectives to be achieved over the period 2022-27 and identify the measures needed to achieve these objectives, including those highlighted by the EPA. The nitrates action programme will also set out objectives to control nutrient loss to our rivers and lakes. As the Deputy said, that comes at a high cost to farmers, who do not want to see this waste either. The majority are well prepared to engage and to work their way through this. With both the review of the nitrates action programme and a draft river basin management plan due to be published shortly for public consultation, I urge all stakeholders to engage in these process to ensure we achieve the best outcomes for our water bodies.

I again thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The Government looks forward to engaging with the House on this issue again as we finalise our river basin management plan for the next six years in the weeks and months ahead.