Ireland's most intensive farmers should seek a derogation that would allow them use the same levels of nitrogen as their Danish counterparts, a report to Cabinet compiled by Mr Denis Brosnan has recommended. Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
The former Kerry plc chief had been asked to provide a consensus report for the Department of the Environment on how to implement the EU nitrates plan being forced on the Government by the EU.
The EU nitrates directive, which should have been implemented in the last decade, requires farmers to reduce their usage of nitrates to 170 kilos per hectare to improve water quality.
Mr Brosnan is understood to have recommended a limit in line with the EU directive but suggested that those who were carrying higher levels of stock generating up to 230 kilos per hectare should seek a derogation from the Department of Agriculture, which would be the competent authority to grant this under his compromise proposals.
The document also recommended changes in the length of time farmers would have to store slurry.
Farmers in the northern part of the State had objected to the original proposals, which would have meant storing slurry for up to 26 weeks.
Alongside a proposal to increase the grant aid for storage facilities to 60 per cent of cost, the Brosnan proposals sought to divide the State into two portions. All farmers in Cavan, Monaghan and Leitrim would have to store their slurry for 24 weeks, while all the other counties would have to store it for 16 weeks and impose a spreading ban between October 16th and January 16th.
The Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers' Association said the Brosnan proposals on storage worsened the position for all counties other than the three named ones.
The president of the ICMSA, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said although Mr Brosnan was to be complimented on bringing much needed clarity to the complicated matter of the nitrates directive, the implementation of the directive would have massive and long-term negative implications for all farmers in the country.
He said he feared the issue was far from resolved because Europe still had to approve a derogation for the higher usage of nitrogen.
Mr Tom Dunne on Wednesday said the IFA acknowledged the clear recommendation from Mr Brosnan that commercial farmers must be permitted to operate within the nitrates directive at economic farming levels, although some level of restrictions may apply.