Minister Martin Heydon and European Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall pictured with Kayleigh and Pat Durkan on their farm in Co Kildare on Friday.
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The IFA and ICMSA have expressed hope that the visit of European Commissioner for Environment Jessika Roswall to a dairy farm in Co Kildare will help tip the scales in Ireland’s favour in the bid to secure a new nitrates derogation.
“It was a really worthwhile engagement,” IFA president Francie Gorman told the Irish Farmers Journal as he described the Commissioner’s farm visit and subsequent meeting with farming organisations as “highly successful” in showcasing the derogation’s role in grass-based farm systems.
“We gave the Commissioner a clear view of our concerns with the derogation and highlighted the absolute need to deliver a derogation that is workable at farm-level,” he commented.
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Gorman singled out the association’s gathering of over 2,000 farmers in Corrin Mart on Monday of last week as one he sees as having “really emboldened” Minister Heydon’s approach to the derogation process ahead of the Commissioner’s visit, as the “people power” on show signalled unity on the issue.
ICMSA leader Denis Drennan said that he used his opportunity to speak with the Commissioner to outline the “sustainable system of milk production in Ireland that based on grazed grass and family farms” while stressing the “importance of allowing dairy farmers a stocking rate that is sustainable from an environmental, social and economic
perspective”.
“Contrary to the impression given by certain NGOs, derogation farmers are absolutely not the source of all problems; they are the most closely inspected and supervised group of farmers and are often the most technically sustainable skilful farmers in the State,” Drennan said.
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The IFA and ICMSA have expressed hope that the visit of European Commissioner for Environment Jessika Roswall to a dairy farm in Co Kildare will help tip the scales in Ireland’s favour in the bid to secure a new nitrates derogation.
“It was a really worthwhile engagement,” IFA president Francie Gorman told the Irish Farmers Journal as he described the Commissioner’s farm visit and subsequent meeting with farming organisations as “highly successful” in showcasing the derogation’s role in grass-based farm systems.
“We gave the Commissioner a clear view of our concerns with the derogation and highlighted the absolute need to deliver a derogation that is workable at farm-level,” he commented.
Gorman singled out the association’s gathering of over 2,000 farmers in Corrin Mart on Monday of last week as one he sees as having “really emboldened” Minister Heydon’s approach to the derogation process ahead of the Commissioner’s visit, as the “people power” on show signalled unity on the issue.
ICMSA leader Denis Drennan said that he used his opportunity to speak with the Commissioner to outline the “sustainable system of milk production in Ireland that based on grazed grass and family farms” while stressing the “importance of allowing dairy farmers a stocking rate that is sustainable from an environmental, social and economic
perspective”.
“Contrary to the impression given by certain NGOs, derogation farmers are absolutely not the source of all problems; they are the most closely inspected and supervised group of farmers and are often the most technically sustainable skilful farmers in the State,” Drennan said.
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