Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Movement of livestock manure between holdings must be recorded and verified online on www.agfood.ie. In a small minority of justified cases (e.g. deceased farmer), paper records of movements will be accepted.

Farmers do not have to employ an agricultural advisor to record an export of organic manure, such as slurry, or to verify an import of organic manure.

To record a movement online, a farmer must have an agfood.ie account. Where a farmer does not have an agfood account already, they can seek to have one set up by emailing: agfood@agriculture.gov.ie.

The online manure movement system is quick and easy to use. A user manual for farmers and agents (i.e. advisors), and a video guide regarding the online slurry movement system are available to access and view on my Department's website at www.gov.ie/nitrates.

To date no farmer has been directly penalised for a failure to declare their organic manure movement. However, not declaring an organic manure export or not having it verified, may have resulted in certain farmer’s annual livestock manure nitrogen (N) exceeding their holding's maximum allowable limit of 170 kg N/ha, or in the case of derogation farmer last year, 250 kg N/ha. Farmers who breach their allowable livestock manure nitrogen limit incur a sanction on their Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) Scheme and other CAP payments, as appropriate.

If a Nitrates Derogation applicant breaches their derogation limit they will be rejected from the derogation for the year concerned and are not eligible to avail of a derogation in the following year.