Farmers in the Republic of Ireland who flout the new fertiliser import regulations risk incurring fines of up to €5,000 and the loss of 100% of their CAP payments.

The stark message was delivered this week by Ted Massey, senior inspector at the Department of Agriculture’s nitrates and biodiversity division.

The legislation, which underpins the establishment of the national fertiliser database last year, states that farmers who wish to purchase fertiliser from outside the State must register as a fertiliser economic operator and declare all imports within 72 hours of them taking place, Massey told a farmers’ meeting in Roscarbery, Co Cork.

“The regulation provides for fines of up to €5,000 for any farmer that doesn’t meet that requirement,” the Department official added.

“In terms of our inspections, under the CAP or conditionality, any farmer found to have provided inaccurate or misleading fertiliser records can be subject to sanctions,” Massey said.

“If it’s an unintentional breach the penalty will be low, but if it’s deemed to be an intentional breach, depending on the nature of that breach, the sanction could be up to 100% of their [farmers’] CAP payments. So, there are strict sanctions there,” he said.

Massey was responding to questions from farmers attending a Carbery-run Slurry Solutions event.

Asked about allegations from some merchants that a black market was developing for unregistered fertiliser imports from Northern Ireland, Massey said farmers have imported and registered 62,000t of product on the database this year.

“So, there are farmers who are doing things right and there’s no problem if people are doing it right and declaring it,” he insisted.

Barry Larkin of the Acorn Group of merchants claimed last week that farmers were importing unregistered fertiliser from Northern Ireland to side-step the fertiliser database.