Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said he can see an outcome whereby farmers can continue to have a nitrates derogation after the appropriate assessment process is complete.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal on the fringes of the AHI Cell Check awards in Co Kildare on Thursday night, the minister acknowledged that the extension to the existing derogation is contingent on other member states voting it through at the 9 December meeting of the EU Nitrates Committee.

He said he expects to be in a position to give more information on what conditionality is being applied to the extension “in due course”.

When asked if he saw an outcome from the appropriate assessment process that would see farmers retain their nitrates derogation, the minister was confident.

“Oh yes, that’s very much open and that is why we’re doing this. Obviously it’s a very onerous task, when the Commission wrote to us as a Government on 10 June, and outlined the requirement for us to do more around improving compliance with the Habitats Directive; it was an extra layer of conditionality on top of what we do already in the area of water quality.

“We still work on water quality and we have the sixth nitrates action programme out for public consultation at present, which is coming to a conclusion now.

“The whole reason is that we needed the time and the three years is really important. It’s fair to say it wasn’t the first offer [from the Commission] and it wasn’t what they wanted to do, but we had to explain in real detail exactly how onerous this undertaking is for the State in order to address this on a more detailed basis than what we’ve done previously and to address it on a catchment and sub-catchment basis, and that requires three years.

“We wouldn’t do all this if that wasn’t to have a [positive] outcome at the end, but it is an important process, it’s not a tick-the-box exercise and it is something that we will work with farmers on.”