The Department of Agriculture announced last weekthat nitrates derogation rules changes will require appropriate assessments to be carried out in catchments and sub-catchments across Ireland to ensure compliance with the Habitats Directive.

Members of the IFA dairy committee have criticised and expressed their concern over the new derogation proposals.

Martin McElearney, IFA dairy chair and Monaghan dairy farmer, said that the loss of derogation will “cause friction between cohorts of farmers and between different sectors”.

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“I’d be very concerned over it. I think it’s a bit unfair in that people are going to be left behind, through no fault of their own, because they’re in the wrong catchment area and ticking all the boxes,” McElearney said.

“What’s disappointing is that we had a midterm review two years ago, it was lowered from 250 to 220 [kg organic N/ha]. A lot of people did an awful lot of work, water quality improved immensely, and we’re back to where the goalposts have been moved to the far side of the pitch.”

Terrible situation

Mayo dairy farmer Padraig Joyce described it as “a terrible situation”, adding: “We’re nearly producing €1 billion per month from the dairy industry, so it’s going to be a huge loss if we lose this derogation. As it is, food has got very expensive and with this coming in, I can see food getting more expensive.

“I am a farmer myself and we’re farming within the derogation. I talked to my son about it – it’s either we buy expensive land or we cut back on the amount of cows that we have,” Joyce said.

Jack Keenan, Wicklow dairy farmer said: “It’s fairly frustrating to be honest. The goalposts are always changing for us and who’s to say they’re not going to change again by the end of the year?” he said.

“It’s hard to plan at the minute. It’s been a good year for farmers so far and now going forward they’re going to have to put the thinking caps back on to see what they’re going to have to do.

“Let’s call a spade a spade, derogation probably isn’t going to be around for much longer and I think farmers are really only kicking the can down the road. We have started planning and a lot of other farmers around us have started forward planning.”