EU grants State deferral in nitrates law

Major confrontation between farmers and the Government appears to have been averted after the European Union agreed to defer a critical section of Ireland's compliance with the nitrates directive.

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche told the leader of the Irish Farmers Association, Pádraig Walshe, yesterday the EU had agreed to a short deferral of the directive's regulations concerning phosphate levels, which had been a major stumbling block for the sector, particularly with pig farmers.

Farmers have strongly opposed advice given by Teagasc, the Irish agriculture and food development authority, to the Departments of the Environment and Agriculture in the run-up to the imposition of the new EU rules on the amount of fertilisers farmers may use on their land.

In retaliation, the IFA boycotted Teagasc's National Tillage Conference in Carlow this week.

Teagasc has now agreed to review the scientific advice it gave on the directive. Mr Roche said this could result in improvements to both the directive's effectiveness and the situation for farmers.

Mr Walshe, however, told the Minister that a number of conditions in the directive were still "problematic".

"The IFA is prepared to work closely with the Minister for a science-based regulation that would permit the continuation of good farming practice while protecting water quality," he said.

In a statement after his meeting with Mr Walshe, Mr Roche said if new scientific advice led to revised nitrates limits, Ireland would make a case for a change to the directive.

"If revised phosphate tables are brought forward and supported by robust underlying science, then the Government is prepared to make a case to the European Commission for revising the current limits.

"The Government and the European Commission see merit in allowing new advice to be elaborated. Equally, we are clear that any new formulation will have to respect the environmental requirements associated with the nitrates directive.

"The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the commission will closely examine the further Teagasc advice in this light," he said.

The regulations dealing with nutrient management planning will now be deferred for a number of weeks. Any amendments will be made following completion of the review and will require the agreement of the European Commission.

The deferral was welcomed by other farming organisations, including the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and Macra Na Feirme.

For the ICMSA, Pat O'Rourke said the directive would have been particularly difficult for pig and poultry farmers.

A spokesman for Macra Na Feirme said the announcement "at least leaves the door open for scientific evidence that the Minister should have considered in the first place to be taken into account.

"The handling of this whole mess has been an affront to social partnership with farmers being treated like fools and science being made subservient to political expediency."

Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman Denis Naughten said the deferral was a direct response to Fine Gael's plans to raise the issue during Private Members' time in the Dáil on Monday.

However, he maintained that other elements of the nitrates plan which will come into force on Wednesday would have a direct impact on farming practices and, to date, no information had been provided to farmers.

Nitrates directive: at a glance

What is it: It is an EU directive designed to control the amount of pollutants, particularly nitrates and phosphates, from entering groundwater.

From where do these pollutants come? Mainly from improperly managed town sewerage systems and from agricultural fertilisers.

Why is there a problem? Because Ireland should have imposed a management plan 15 years ago to limit the amount of nitrates and phosphates that can be used by farmers and so control the risk to groundwater. Also, the Environmental Protection Agency has reported that 20 per cent of groundwater has nitrate concentrations above EU directive levels, while 27 per cent of rivers are affected by eutrophication (excessive richness of nutrients).

The EPA also says there is widespread bacteriological contamination of groundwaters and drinking-water supplies from livestock manure. Town sewage treatment schemes have been installed.

So what next? The EU has already secured a reasoned opinion from the European Court against Ireland for its failure to impose the directive. The next step would be that the court imposes fines.