The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual Water Conference heard both Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture experts downplay any expectation that removing Ireland’s nitrates derogation would improve water quality.

“If I thought getting rid of the derogation was going to improve water quality, I’d be 100% behind it, but I don’t think so,” Pat Dillon, director of research at Teagasc, told delegates at the conference in Galway last Thursday.

He pointed to farm inspection data from Northern Ireland which found non-compliance rates on derogation farms were much lower (6.6%) than on non-derogation farms (22%).

“We have identified where the [water quality] requirements are. We should focus on the actions rather than the politics of it,” Dillon said, adding that a bottom-up approach is needed to improve water quality.

His comments were echoed by Noeleen McDonald, assistant agricultural inspector in Department of Agriculture.

“There’s no clear signs there to state that removal of the derogation is going to improve water quality,” she told the EPA conference delegates.

“It’s shown in other member states, when they’ve compared derogation versus non-derogation, that there was no difference.”

She added that derogation farmers operate under much stricter environmental conditions. McDonald said that the EPA’s early indicator insights report, which showed a reduction in the average nitrogen levels in rivers, were “some early signs of progress being made”.

“However, if that’s just early signs, there’s still more work to do so in terms of seeing the impact of those measures further down the line,” she explained.

Engagement

“There’s a significant and unprecedented engagement across the Irish farmer community, agri-food industry and government to improve water quality that’s been stepped up in recent times,” McDonald added. “The government has committed to driving this progress, through the stakeholder engagement and getting that right combination and balance of the regulatory and non regulatory measures,” she said.