Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 1310: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if, in view of the prolonged dry spell over the 2008/2009 Christmas period, he is satisfied that the restriction on spreading farmyard manure, slurry and the ploughing of land for forage crop purposes is justified; the reason there are different rules in Northern Ireland, whereby farmers are allowed carry on these activities without restriction during this period; if he will lobby for equalisation of the rules between Northern Ireland and southern Ireland within the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1214/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Nitrates Regulations (SI No. 378 of 2006) are a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the first instance. The objective of the Regulations is to protect water quality and the various provisions are designed to control the management of fertilisers, including the timing, method of application and maximum amounts that may be applied, in order to prevent fertiliser losses to water.

Regarding the application of fertilisers, the EU Nitrates Directive requires Member States' Action Programmes to include rules regarding periods when the land application of certain types of fertilisers is prohibited. Therefore the Nitrates Regulations specify prohibited periods during which fertilisers may not be applied to land. The purpose of these prohibited periods is to ensure that fertilisers are not applied at times of the year when crops are not growing and not able to use them and when there is a high risk of those fertilisers finding their way into waters instead.

The Regulations also contain a number of requirements in relation to ploughing, such as a prohibition on ploughing of grassland between certain dates and requirements to provide for green cover within a certain period after ploughing. These provisions are designed to minimise nutrient losses from bare ground. Significant nutrient loss can occur when grassland or arable land is ploughed and where there is no crop planted shortly after ploughing to take up the nutrients that will be released when the buried organic matter breaks down.

The Northern Ireland Executive introduced its Nitrates Action Programme Regulations in 2006 following a separate negotiation process with the European Commission. Those Regulations do not permit farmers to carry out the activities mentioned above without restriction. Northern Ireland has the same prohibited period for slurry spreading as Counties Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Donegal, from 15 October to 31 January. The Regulations in Northern Ireland also require a farmer to take steps to prevent nutrient loss after harvesting of a crop, but present different options such as the retention of stubble, sowing of a crop that will take up nitrogen or leaving the land with a rough surface, by ploughing or discing, to encourage the infiltration of rain.

The contents of the Regulations made by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government were the subject of extensive consultation with stakeholders, including the farming bodies, and were finalised following a long period of negotiation with the EU Commission. At the conclusion of this process, the Nitrates Regulations (SI No. 378 of 2006) were made by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in 2006 to further implement the EU Nitrates Directive. The provisions in relation to landspreading, ploughing and green cover are fundamental measures in meeting the objectives of the Directive, which is to protect waters against pollution from agricultural sources, and I am not aware of plans for a review in advance of that stipulated in the Regulations themselves.