County councils could soon tighten the screw on water quality by inspecting more farmers and imposing harsher penalties for those who breach pollution rules.

A “significant increase” in the number of county council farm inspections must take place over the next five years for Ireland to comply with the conditions of its nitrates derogation, the Department of Housing has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

However, it is not just derogation farmers who will be subject to the ramped-up inspection regime.

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The Department is currently examining the possibility of local authorities inspecting 4,050 farms each year.

These inspections would be in addition to any Department of Agriculture scheme or derogation inspections, as well as any inspections carried out by State agencies.

Farmer compliance with closed periods for slurry and fertiliser spreading, stocking rates, slurry storage and mandatory buffer zones are among the areas which could be inspected.

The proposed five-year inspection target of 20,200 farms was the outcome of an exercise by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) to assess pollution risk on farms, according to a report only recently released to the public.

This 20,200 figure allows for inspections to be focused towards areas where water quality is most at risk from nitrates or phosphates, along with another 1% of farms outside of these at-risk areas.

The report, which came from the representative body for county council managers, County and City Management Association (CCMA), estimated that 57 new inspectors will be needed as well as around €23m in funds.

Harsher penalties

Plans are also under way to assess whether authorities should ramp up the severity of the penalties applied when farmers are found to fall foul of water pollution rules.

The Department of Housing has put to tender a review seeking to compare the effectiveness of a “convictions, fines and imprisonment” approach for farmers who breach water quality rules in comparison to scheme payment penalties.

Whoever wins the Department’s tender for the review work will also make recommendations to the Department to “inform policy and legislative development” on farm water pollution.

Counties targeted

If implemented, the proposed inspection figures would see some counties having more than one in every three farmers inspected under the new regime.

Figures quoted in the report suggest that around 38% of farmers in Carlow would be inspected, as would 32% in Laois, 32% in Kildare and 30% in Wexford.

The border region also shows high levels of required inspection figures for county council targets to be met. The figure for Co Monaghan equates to 27% of farmers while Cavan’s comes in at 26%.

Counties Sligo and Donegal are among those which would face looser inspection rates than average under the revamped system, proposed at 8% and 10% of farmers, respectively.

The 4,000 farm inspections per year figure quoted in the CCMA report assumes that only 1% of farms outside of at-risk areas for water quality could be inspected from a “practical and funding viewpoint”.

However, the body noted that a “figure of 5% was felt to be more appropriate”. A 5% inspection rate outside of at-risk areas would require another 2,600 inspections per year to be carried out.