Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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503. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 198 of 24 March 2022, if he will report on the progress made implementing a State-wide local authority agricultural inspection programme in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13825/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Fifth Nitrates Action Programme for 2022 – 2025, published in March 2022, has strengthened the local authority agricultural inspection and enforcement programme to ensure that there is a significant increase in the number of inspections, follow-up actions such as enforcement notices issued, prosecutions taken and penalties applied on non-compliant farms.

In 2022 the EPA established and chair the National Agricultural Inspection Programme (NAIP) Working Group under the umbrella of the Network for Ireland's Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (NIECE).This working group provides steering on development and implementation of the NAIP. Members include representatives from local authorities, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Inland Fisheries Ireland. The NAIP commenced in 2022 and has been further enhanced in 2023.

The programme includes development and delivery of:

- A risked based inspection plan to assist local authorities in targeting inspections in waterbodies most at risk from impact from agriculture

- Templates and guidance for carrying out and recording farm inspections.

- Methodology for follow-up and closure on issues detected including promotional, monitoring and enforcement actions.

- Templates and protocols for recording inspections and the outcomes of inspections to support local authorities complying with the GAP Regulation (S.I. 113 of 2022).

- A training programme for all local authorities for implementation of these guidance and protocols (in conjunction with LANSTG), and

- Recommendation and requirements for an ICT system and support for the development of a system – the EPA NAIP Working Group

The development and enhancement of the NAIP is iterative. The EPA hosted a webinar for all local authority working on the NAIP on 24January 2023 to discuss the 2023 programme. The EPA are currently collating local authority data on the NAIP for 2022 and the outcomes will further inform development of the programme.

In 2022, my Department offered additional funding to ten local authorities specifically for agricultural inspections under the NAIP and I intend to make further funding available in 2023.