IFA environmental chair John Murphy has said he is confident that the nitrates derogation will be retained. Speaking at Clonakilty IFA’s annual dairy conference in west Cork on Monday night last, he said that there will be more conditionality on it and some more asks to it.

“It will probably be a more catchment-based ask because if you look at the way it’s progressing in the last few years, it’s the right actions in the right place.”

These conditions may centre on a more regional level compared to before, as he felt the overall national approach of the last 20 years wasn’t getting the same results and he said the duration of the derogation needs to be the full four years available without mid-term reviews.

“The overall approach is probably not going to work anymore, so these assessments will need to be done over time in either catchment level or sub-catchment level. We’re asking that the derogation would be granted for the four years to give the industry and farmers more time to adjust when the figures are coming with us.”

In a nod to the volume of changes imposed on derogation farmers in recent years, he cautioned that there is a real danger farmers will disengage if they feel they’re unfairly treated.

The renewal of the derogation is on the agenda at the European Commission’s nitrates committee on 9 December. As negotiations between Irish officials and Brussels bureaucrats on a derogation proposal continue, midlands northwest MEP Maria Walsh has urged the European Commissioner for Environment Jessika Roswall to extend the derogation.