The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has said it has very considerable concerns around the terms and conditions of the proposal to extend Ireland’s nitrates derogation for three years.

ICMSA president Denis Drennan said that three years is a short period and doesn’t allow farmers to plan with certainty for the long term.

“It’s a cliché, but if there was ever a case where ‘the devil is in the detail’, then it’s going to be the conditions that will be attached to the granting of individual derogations to individual farmers.

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“They were already very onerous. Some measures are highly questionable and the whole process is more complicated and cumbersome than it should be.

“We have around 7,000 farmers operating sustainably under the derogation and they are already the most regulated and most inspected in the state,” Drennan said.

The ICMSA leader said that securing the extension is only half the issue.

“The other half is making the system of applying for - and operating under - those derogations feasible and affordable,” he said.

Read more

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Three-year extension to nitrates derogation on the table

MEPs sound alarm on conditions of derogation extension

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