Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. My Commencement matter also relates to flooding. The exact wording is to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage that some immediate provisional arrangements be made to allow farmers whose slurry storage facilities were flooded during Storm Babet to empty their tanks without fear of prosecution or penalty, considering the slurry spreading closed period commenced on 15 October.

I and the farmers are aware that under the good agricultural practice, GAP, for the protection of water regulations, SI 113 of 2020, farmers are still allowed to spread soiled water until 13 December. The problematic water is in essence just soiled water. While there were two extensions of the slurry spreading season, which were greatly welcome - I compliment the Department and the Minister for extending the season because we are all aware of the non-climatic conditions we had - unfortunately, many of the tanks which were emptied and made ready during the extended period are now full of water again as a result of the flooding.

I condole with the people who have lost a lot of property and big parts of their livelihoods, as we have seen on television in recent days. We have seen a lot of surface water. As the slurry tanks I am speaking about are all underground, they will be full before we even see water over ground. There is a large number of them. The biggest fear the farmers I have spoken to have is that if without agitating, they just take the water out, while they would be abiding by the regulations on safe spreading and buffer zones, they might be reported by people who are aware that the slurry spreading season is over. They would like to see a process, system or guarantee. Others may not be aware of the soiled water spreading condition because they are not dairy farmers - for example if they are beef farmers or some other people - and they might see them going out for the first time in a lifetime. What is the process? Will they be leaving themselves open? They are fearful of prosecution or cross-compliance loss of farm income, such as farm subsidies, although in essence, they would not be breaking the law under the nitrates regulations. They are asking for assurance that they can go and do safely what they know they can do legally without fear of consequences down the line.