Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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13. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will extend the slurry spreading closing date of 15 October for a further two weeks in view of the very challenging weather conditions of the past two months which has resulted in significant backlogs in getting slurry spread; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41650/17]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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53. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will extend the slurry spreading deadline of 14 October 2017 to enable farmers to spread when conditions allow in view of the extremely wet weather conditions in parts of the country over the past six to eight weeks which has prevented the spread of slurry. [41893/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 53 together.

The European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2014, as amended, give legal effect in Ireland to the Nitrates Directive and to our Nitrates Action Programme (NAP). The Nitrates Directive requires all member states to define set periods when the land application of fertiliser, including slurry, is not allowed and in Ireland the closed season commenced on 15 October.

It was recognised that the exceptional rainfall in recent weeks has created difficulties for slurry spreading in certain parts of the country resulting in animal welfare concerns. My Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine agreed an appropriate response and farmers with concerns about the impact of recent rainfall on their ability to complete the land-spreading of slurry were advised to contact the Nitrates Section of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with details of the flooding / trafficability situation, their herd number and other relevant data in advance of the closed period commencing on 15 October.

I understand that 578 farmers out of a total number of bovine farmers of 109,000 contacted the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in this regard.  The Nitrates Section of that Department will now be making follow-up contact with each of those farmers.

Farmers who contacted the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in this regard were advised:

1. To spread only that volume of slurry necessary to ensure adequate storage capacity for the remainder of the closed period

2. That any spreading should occur as soon as good spreading conditions exist

3. That they would be prioritised for inspection by Local Authorities in the immediate future to ensure compliance with the Nitrates Regulations

4. That assessment of overall on-farm storage capacity could be part of that inspection process

5. That the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine would subsequently contact the farmers to ascertain and record the date(s) on which this additional spreading takes place. 

Subsequent Local Authority inspection reports will be returned to my Department and will be shared with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and those farms needing to avail of this flexibility will become a priority category for inspections in future years.

I am satisfied that the concerns regarding farmers' inability to spread slurry within the required timeframe have been adequately dealt with in a proportional and sensible manner.