Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 214: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the date on which a beef farmer can legally spread farm yard manure or slurry on grassland in County Wexford in 2008, when the same farmer has not got sufficient slurry storage for a full 16 weeks; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31429/07]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 215: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the necessary criteria to allow a farmer with insufficient slurry storage capacity to spread slurry in the first week of January 2008; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31430/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 214 and 215 together.

The implementation of the Nitrates Directive is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The dates of the prohibited periods for spreading fertilizer are set out in the European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters) Regulations 2006, made by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The prohibited periods apply to holdings that meet the minimum storage requirements as set out in the Regulations. In County Wexford, the prohibited periods for application of chemical fertilizer, slurry or farmyard manure run until 12 January. On a holding that has adequate storage, therefore, fertilizers may not be applied to land until after that date.

Farmers who do not have adequate storage for organic fertilizers are prohibited from spreading manure or slurry, and from storing farmyard manure in a field, during the months of November and December, but may do so outside of these periods. These transition rules apply until 1 January 2009, by which time all farmers must have adequate storage capacity for organic fertilizers in place.