Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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490. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he is considering to aid farmers with respect to slurry spreading and meeting EU nitrates responsibilities; and if persons that use splash plates for spreading will continue to be able to use this equipment following the national clean air strategy consultation by Government. [31554/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, it is important to note that the lead on the National Clean Air Strategy is the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment. The public consultation has now concluded and that Department will conduct a thorough examination of all submissions received as part of its consultation phase.

Within this context, the document which was drafted to inform the public consultation identified a number of issues in relation to air quality and emission sources. It recognised that the spreading of slurry can, depending on the timing of the application and the weather conditions, result in nitrogen loss from slurry to the atmosphere through ammonia volatilisation.

No decision has been taken on a total ban on splash plates. My Department will continue to liaise closely with colleagues in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment on this matter.

On foot of farmer demand to improve the utilisation of slurry as a fertiliser, my Department is assisting farmers under TAMS in the purchase of Low Emission Slurry Spreading equipment where to date 539 applications have been received for trailing shoe, 394 applications for the dribble bar and 14 applications for shallow injection. Overall across all low emissions technologies over 1,058 applications have been received which is above expectations. There are no splash plate systems being grant-aided. In addition more than 4,750 farmers have applied under the GLAS scheme to apply slurry using low emission equipment.

This is being driven by farmers themselves wanting to maximise the value of the slurry on their own farms, rather than as a regulatory requirement. Recently, the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors of Ireland also identified their support for this technology.

However, I fully understand that this technology is not suitable for all farms.