An overview report for each of the 46 catchments in the country will be available, perhaps as soon as next month. This will be the first clear indication as to how appropriate assessment will affect the country’s 7,000 derogation farmers in the future.

The deeper assessment of the 583 mini-catchments is on track to be delivered by early 2028. This news emerged when farm leaders met with Minister Martin Heydon on Tuesday afternoon.

In all, there are 583 separate mini-catchments. Of these, it’s expected that around 450 will require appropriate assessment, containing both farmers utilising the nitrates derogation and a habitat that needs assessment. One concern raised by both the IFA and ICMSA is the tight timescale. “Farmers need certainty, but currently lack it because of the cycle of the Nitrates Directive,” as an IFA spokesperson put.

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“The maximum term is four years – the current derogation is only for three years and that’s a problem when it comes to coherent farm planning. It’s very difficult for farmers to make long-term investment decisions amid this uncertainty and its something that needs to be addressed as part of the current review of the Nitrates Directive”.

The current derogation will expire at the end of 2028, within months of clarity around each catchment’s status. In addition, a large number of derogation farmers are required to have extra slurry storage capacity in place by October 2028.

“If farmers lose their entitlement to a derogation due to the outcome of the appropriate assessment of their catchment, that investment will have been in vain,” said ICMSA president Denis Drennan. Should the country not gain a renewal of the derogation at the end of 2028, the same would apply.

All sides recognise that these issues are not of the Minister’s making, and key department staff are wrestling with the appropriate assessment aspect of the derogation.