Up to €10,500 on average over five years is on offer for farmers who take part in the newly launched Mulkear European Innovation Partnership (EIP).

The scheme is farmer driven and focuses on finding ways to improve water quality on farmland that borders the Mulkear or parts of the river network.

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“The expected average is about €10,500 over the course of their [farmer] involvement over the five years,” project manager of the scheme Ruairí Ó Conchúir told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“What this means is that farmers will receive up to that. Some farmers will receive less than that and more farmers will received significantly more than that.”

The project has been awarded €1.2m in funding from the Department of Agriculture and covers 650km ² across Limerick and Tipperary – two counties with some of the highest numbers of dairy cows in Ireland.

Ó Conchúir pointed out that while water quality was largely good in the area it had still been classed as “at risk” in the River Basin Management Plan.

Farmers are often told that the renewal of the Nitrates Directive hinges on improving water quality and it was clear that agricultural bodies supported the scheme, with the involvement of both Teagasc and Dairygold.

Central to scheme

The involvement of the farmer was repeated as being central to the scheme.

“This is farmer-led – we’re not listening to tick-box men in Brussels,” David Thompson, secretary of the scheme, said.

In total, the scheme is taking 60 farmers on board over the next three years and it will run for five years.