Teagasc water quality expert David Wall has confirmed that comments made by European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius when he visited Ireland have since been clarified by European Commission officials.
“Based on our next application for a derogation, we need to show evidence that those areas with moderate or poor water quality need to show improvement, stable is not good enough," Wall said.
"Areas with good or high status need to at least hold their own by remaining stable, if not improve. That leaves us with a lot of work to do in terms of those areas that are not meeting the targets.”
Wall was speaking at the Teagasc water quality conference on Wednesday and went on to say that some areas of the country that are currently at 250kg N/ha will be revised and are likely to be at 220kg N/ha within 12 months.
Improvement
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the same event, senior inspector with the Department of Agriculture Ted Massey said that those areas where water quality is not good enough will need to show improvement of at least 1mg/l of nitrate in order to convince the European Commission to grant Ireland a derogation at the next review.
“Even if these areas don’t achieve the targets as set out in the water framework directive, if we can show improvement in water quality, then we have a good chance of convincing the Commission to grant us the derogation,” he said.
The conference also heard that the final nitrogen excretion rates for cows and calves and maximum fertiliser rates won’t be known until April, after nutrient management plans are completed by advisers.
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