Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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513. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to outline his views on the use of splash plates for slurry spreading in view of the national clean air strategy consultation. [31557/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Research shows that the spreading of slurry can, depending on the timing of the application and the weather conditions, result in nitrogen loss to the atmosphere through ammonia volatilisation. Besides being a pollutant in its own right, ammonia also reacts with other substances in the atmosphere to produce further pollutants such as particulate matter.

As Minister for the Environment, I am committed to examining ways of reducing pollution from all sectors. In this regard, my Department recently completed a public consultation process as an initial step in producing the first ever National Clean Air Strategy. This Strategy will provide the framework for a set of cross-Government policies and actions to reduce harmful emissions and improve air quality and public health to meet current and future EU and international obligations. A document entitled ‘Cleaning Our Air’ was published as part of this process which explored the impact of a number of sectors, including agriculture. The purpose of the document was to initiate discussion and ascertain the views of the various stakeholders while providing a background to the numerous approaches to improving air quality. To facilitate a structured response, a series of questions were set out at the end of each chapter. At the end of the chapter on the agricultural sector the question was posed ‘Should a future end date on the use of splash plate slurry spreading be considered following the completion of schemes to incentivise low emission alternatives?’ This question should not  be construed as a ‘suggestion’ or indeed a policy intent either by myself or my Department. It was simply asked as an enabler to ascertain the views of relevant stakeholders but has been mistakenly taken, by some commentators, to reflect a policy proposal.

My officials are currently conducting a thorough examination of all submissions received through the consultation phase and are engaging in a series of detailed bilateral discussions to ascertain the views of the key stakeholders. I would stress that no changes to existing practices have been proposed at this point.

In the meantime, I understand that as a result of farmer demand to improve the utilisation of slurry as a fertiliser, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is assisting almost 950 farmers in the purchase of Low Emission Slurry Spreading equipment under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS). I also understand that more than 4,750 farmers have applied under the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) to apply slurry using low emission equipment. In addition, the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors of Ireland have recently also identified their support for this technology.