Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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401. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the Exchequer funding allocated for the nitrates action programme in each of the years 2018 to 2021; the 2018 funding allocation, by current and capital funding; the number of full- and part-time staff working directly on the programme in his Department; and the annual running costs, including staffing costs, for his Department, in tabular form. [20174/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Housing, Planning & Local Government is the lead authority for the Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations which gives legal effect to the Nitrates Directive and to our Nitrates Action Programme (NAP).

The Nitrates Directive is one of the Statutory Management Requirements for which my Department inspects 1% of Basic Payment Scheme applicants to ensure compliance with standards.

Significant supports are made available through the Rural Development Programme towards achievement of environmental objectives in climate, biodiversity and water including with the Nitrates Directive. This support amounts to €4 billion over the period 2014-2020. Under GLAS our agri-environmental climate measure in the RDP a significant portion of funding is devoted to water protection measures such as priority access to farmers in high status water areas.

Our Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) provides grant aid of 40% to all farmers and up to 60% to young trained farmers investing in slurry and manure storage facilities and concrete silage slabs etc. The Low Emission Slurry Spreading Scheme has been particularly successful and provides grant support for use of new technology which will increase the value of applied slurries on farms. This leads to reduced nutrient losses and therefore benefit water quality and over 1500 applications have been received to date.

In addition my Department funds the Teagasc Agricultural Catchments Programme (ACP) which is a joint research and advisory programme operated by Teagasc in six agricultural catchments across the country. The scientific findings from the ACP help fulfil Ireland's monitoring and reporting requirements under the EU Nitrates Directive and the EU Water Framework Directive. The findings support key agri-environmental policies and strategies, including the recent review of the NAP and the 2nd cycle of River Basin District Planning under the Water Framework Directive.

The most recent support is a collaborative approach between my Department, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the dairy industry to fund water advisors for farmers to assist in them in meeting water protection standards. This is an important measure as it is a whole of government, whole of sector innovation and an important measure in Ireland's recently published River Basin Management Plan.

The Nitrates, Biodiversity and Engineering (NBE) Division of my Department plays a major role in the development and implementation of policies and operations pertaining to the NAP and Nitrates Derogation, in addition to other responsibilities. Projected expenditure details for the DAFM Nitrates, Biodiversity and Engineering Division for 2018 are as follows: