The new cabinet committee on water quality established by the Government must have an “all-sectors approach”, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).

It comes as IFA environmental chair John Murphy welcomed the new Government’s commitment to retaining Ireland’s derogation, outlined in the Programme for Government.

Murphy said that the forum, chaired by the Taoiseach, will co-ordinate water quality improvements across all sectors and ensure a whole-of-Government approach to help Ireland meet its targets.

“The across all sectors’ approach’ is really important to farmers who are concerned that the scale of ambition by the State to address non-compliance in wastewater treatment plants does not match the scale of ambition and effort in the agriculture sector to address agricultural pressures on water quality,” he said.

“Farmers are concerned that the slow progress by the State to rectify non-compliance in wastewater treatment plants will have serious repercussions for the agriculture sector when it comes to retaining the derogation and a workable Nitrates Action Programme.”

Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an early insight report in December which showed that in a representative sample of water bodies, the nitrogen concentrations nationally reduced in the first half of 2024 relative to other years, and that they are at their lowest since 2016.

Murphy said that farmers should help build on these positive numbers to continue improving Ireland’s water quality.

“This is a very positive sign, and hopefully shows that the measures, both regulatory and voluntary, adopted by farmers are starting to deliver improvement in water quality,” he added.

“The newly launched 60% grant aid for nutrient storage investments under TAMS 3 is another very important component of the plan to support farmers to invest and create additional storage capacity to optimise nutrient management.

“The next piece of the jigsaw is the immediate introduction of an exempted development threshold for stand-alone nutrient storage units, now that the Planning and Development Act has been passed.”

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