Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the impact of the nitrates directive since it was implemented. [42932/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The Nitrates Directive and Ireland's National Nitrates Action Programme are given legal effect by the European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters) Regulations 2006 and 2007. These Regulations have been designed to protect waters against pollution from agricultural sources. It is as yet too early to quantify the beneficial effects of the Nitrates Regulations on water quality. While the recently published EPA Water Quality Report for 2004-2006 shows evidence of a slight improvement overall in water quality (with the length of river classified as unpolluted increasing from 69.2% to 71.4% and the number of lakes with satisfactory water quality increasing from 82% to 85.3%) deterioration of ground water quality is a major cause for concern.

Significant funding is being provided by my colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food under the Farm Waste Management Scheme to support investment by farmers to meet the storage requirements of the Nitrates Regulations. Grant aid of €415 million has been provided for this purpose in 2007/2008, and this investment should contribute to improvements in water quality.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has set up an Agricultural Mini-Catchment Programme to scientifically evaluate the impact of the measures contained in the Regulations. This is a very substantial research programme which will run for at least four years, and it is overseen by an Expert Select Committee comprising a number of international experts as well as experts from the EPA, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and my Department. Under the Programme, a number of intensively farmed mini-catchments on a range of contrasting soil types have been identified and the effect of changes in farm management practices on the transfer of nutrients from source to water, and their impact on water quality, will be scientifically evaluated.