Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Dooley for raising this matter. It reflects his commitment to representing the agriculture sector across County Clare. I begin by saying that I fully recognise the importance to the rural economy of maintaining Ireland’s nitrates derogation. I am committed to seeking to maintain it in the longer term. We want the derogation to be maintained and continued. As the Senator pointed out, it helps to support productive family farms and support the rural economy. To do this and maintain it, we must all act together, in particular on the objective of improving our water quality.

As required by the nitrates directive, a nitrates derogation may only be granted if it will not compromise achievement of the directive’s two objectives, namely, to reduce and to prevent water pollution caused by agriculture. It is, therefore, a derogation from some of the requirements of the nitrates directive but not its objectives and is based on specific criteria.

In March 2022, the Government secured a new nitrates derogation for Ireland covering the period 2022 to 2025. We negotiated the extension to the derogation in 2021 and early 2022. In considering the outcome, we must be conscious of the background to those negotiations. The previous extension was negotiated in 2017. Over the four-year period from 2017 to 2021 in Ireland the dairy herd expanded by more than 300,000 head. An average additional 30,000 tonnes of nitrogen were being used nationally per year. Water quality also declined in certain areas, particularly in the south and south east.

Given this background, the European Commission insisted on attaching increased conditionality to Ireland’s nitrates derogation. This included conditionality around water quality trends. The water quality review required by the Commission will take place in the coming months based on Environmental Protection Agency data. Depending on the outcome of that review, it is possible under the derogation we negotiated, and to which we had to agree, that at least some of the country will have to move to the lower maximum stocking limit of 220 kg of organic nitrogen per hectare.

The quality of water in any catchment reflects the cumulative impacts of all pressures on water quality in that catchment. Agriculture’s impact is determined by the cumulative impact of all farmers' actions. As a result, we must all work together across the entire agrifood sector to improve Irish water quality to secure the possibility of retaining our nitrates derogation in the long term.

There are three ways we are working to achieve this. The first way is by regulation through the current nitrates regulations. Under the recent review we have asked farmers to do significantly more, including reducing nitrogen limits by 10% for most farmers, extending the periods when fertiliser and manure cannot be spread, increased use of low emissions slurry spreading technology and requiring better management of nutrients on the farm among other actions.

The second way is by supporting farmers through measures included under the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, within the CAP strategic plan. In this regard, I was delighted to accept all 46,000 farmers into ACRES recently. The targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, will also support on-farm capital investment in storage and provide accelerated capital allowances for investments in slurry storage facilities to be written off over the coming three years.

Finally, we will achieve this by working in collaboration with industry and initiatives such as the dairy co-ops sustainability schemes. In this regard, I acknowledge the support that the dairy processing industry is providing for the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme, ASSAP. It is a brilliant and free advisory service to help farmers in selected catchments to improve water quality. From the original base of ten industry-funded advisers at the start of the programme, there are now 23 advisers working on the programme employed by the dairy co-ops, alongside 20 supported by the State.

At the moment only Ireland, Denmark, the Flanders region of Belgium, and the Netherlands have a nitrates derogation. The Netherlands derogation is being phased out. It will not be granted a derogation after 2025. At the end of last year, the derogation for the Flanders region expired. It has not yet sought an extension. Denmark’s current derogation expires in 2024. Based on our unique soils, land use and farming systems within Europe we can, and we will, seek to justify our nitrates derogation. However, we must at the same time deliver on our commitments in terms of water quality improvements. I believe we can achieve this.

I am strongly committed to working with farmers and industry, both in delivery of our water quality objectives and maintaining the derogation in the longer term. I want the derogation to work for farmers and our environment in the short term as well as the long term.