Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has strenuously denied that the Government ever part took in Brussels horse trading that would see Ireland’s nitrates derogation extended in return for concessions on Mercosur.

Minister Heydon insisted the derogation extension was secured on the back of Ireland’s strong application and that the decision was one that was “based on science”. He was speaking at the launch of Teagasc's Better Farming for Water campaign's expansion into the Boyne river catchment on Wednesday.

“There has been an awful lot of loose talk over the last week as well beyond Mercosur around our standing in Europe,” he said.

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“I don’t want anyone in this room or anyone in the farming sector to think that the derogation is this tradable commodity where people will throw you a few sweets if you are good and that they could go and take them back off you.

“Just to be clear on this, in all my negotiations with Commissioner Roswall… the only things I or my officials ever discussed with her or her officials were water quality, the Habitats Directive and technical elements around the derogation.”

The comments come little less than a month after Taoiseach Micheál Martin suggested that Ireland should look at the EU-Mercosur free trade deal “in the round” with the derogation’s extension.

Ball in farmers' court

Minister Heydon said that the three-year extension represents a “golden opportunity” to make progress on water quality that will leave Ireland in a comfortable position to seek another extension before the end of 2028.

He encouraged the entire agri food sector to ensure that water quality remains a “green jersey” issue.

“For once, the future is in our hands and probably more so than ever before with the nitrates derogation,” the minister stated.

He renewed calls for farmers to adopt “small practical measures” on their farms.

“If, at the end of those three years we don’t have a derogation, it is on us. There are no excuses. We are in such a better space now.”

The minister twice took the opportunity to evoke the Battle of Boyne in his comments at Teagasc Grange.

He said efforts to improve water quality concern more than just the nitrates derogation, they are “about our identity, who we are, our history, 1690, the Battle of the Boyne, King James and William of Orange and all of who we are and how it shaped out country, our people”, before later remarking that 2028 derogation will be “much more winnable” than the Boyne was three centuries previous.