Ireland must conduct a review of its Nitrates Action Programme with a view to having it in place by 2018.

A request for a new nitrates derogation will be submitted to the European Commission as part of the review process.

“Although having been successful in all previous derogation requests, this review will be complicated by the recent EPA report on water quality from 2012 to 2015,” Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed said.

“Previous reports all revealed an increase in water quality, albeit a slow and gradual improvement. This report, however, at best reveals a stalling of this trend in improvement and at worst shows a slight deterioration in the water quality of certain types of watercourses.”

Of course it is not just nutrients from farmland that run into our waters – uncontrolled release of nutrients such as sewage from our county councils into the sea also affect water quality.

The potential loss of a derogation presents a challenge for farmers who are heavily stocked.

In addition, the transitional arrangements that allowed pig and poultry farms to apply manure in excess of crop requirements end this year.

In a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department said it “is conscious of concerns within the pig sector regarding the ending of the transitional provisions, and is aware that Teagasc promotes pig manure as a low-cost high-quality fertiliser”.

The statement continued: “The Department is currently looking at options to provide information so that those pig producers who will have excess slurry can export to farmers who have the capability to import slurry and remain within the 170kg N/ha and phosphorus limits.”

BPS penalties

Meanwhile, the Department is calling on all farmers who exported slurry, rented extra land, or temporarily moved cattle to another holding, to submit the appropriate forms by 31 December in order to avoid BPS penalties.

Forms should be sent to the nitrates section, Johnstown Castle, Wexford.