Tánaiste Micheál Martin has suggested that Government will see if there are measures it could take to ease the challenges facing derogation farmers who must cut stocking rate from January 2024.
The Fianna Fáil leader said that these challenges are acknowledged and appreciated, but that the decision to cut derogation stocking rates for most of the country from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha was a necessary element of the current nitrates derogation.
“We now have to see how can we work to see if can we alleviate the pressures on those most affected as a result of those decisions,” the Tánaiste stated on Tuesday.
“But, more critically, in my view, we have to make sure that we retain the 220 at the end of this derogation period in 2025 and renegotiate for its retention into the long term.”
IFA protest
He spoke at a Fianna Fáil think-in in Co Tipperary, which was met with an overnight protest by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA).
“This is not the first thinking where we've had protests from farmers or indeed other organisations that’s the lifeblood of our political system, of our democratic system,” Martin commented.
“I met with the farmers yesterday, which Charlie McConalogue, who has been very consistent in his engagement with farming organisations since he came into office and we had a constructive meeting yesterday with the executive of the IFA.”
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