Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has been told by senior civil servants to take a tougher stance with farmers who fall foul of water quality rules.

The nitrates expert group has advised that county council water quality inspections should put a greater emphasis on penalising non-compliant farmers, including notifying the Department of Agriculture of any wrongdoing found and pursuing legal action against farmers “if necessary”.

The calls for a stricter approach refer to the national agricultural inspection programme, which is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but implemented on the ground by county councils.

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The nitrates expert group recommended to Minister Heydon that the inspection programme should have “a stronger emphasis on enforcement activity, including cross-reporting to the Department of Agriculture and taking prosecutions where necessary”.

It said that data from 2024 farm water quality inspections indicate a “high non-compliance rate among non-derogation farms”.

The regulations covering slurry storage capacity, the closed spreading window, fertiliser allowances and buffer zones are among those assessed during these local authority farm inspections.

“It is anticipated that the existence of a permanent inspection programme will promote compliance, thereby improving the compliance rate over time,” the expert group added, as it called for 57 newly-appointed county council farm inspectors to be offered permanent contracts.

Advising ministers

The nitrates expert group advises ministers responsible for nitrates policy and some of the body’s other proposals aimed at tightening up farm water quality regulations were revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal this week.

The group is chaired by the Department of Agriculture and Housing, with representatives of Teagasc and the EPA also sitting on it.

Proposals put forward to Minister Heydon for consideration under the next nitrates action programme, which is due to commence next year, include standalone fertiliser limits for milking platforms, higher slurry storage requirements for dairy farmers and mandatory declarations of slurry movements spread on a farmer’s own out-blocks, similar to the way slurry exports off one farm and on to another holding are reported.