'We will bring the people to the streets of Dublin'

There was palpable anger among farmers about the impact of urban sewage on water quality, and the issue was raised passionately by the IFA dairy chair Martin McElearney.

“Excuse my language, but the p**s and s**t of our towns and cities is dirtying the water, and we as dairy farmers are getting the blame for it,” he said, to raucous applause.

“No other sector of society has been asked to reduce by 20%,” he said, saying that the equivalent of the derogation cut from 250kg to 220kg organic N/ha would never be imposed on doctors, teachers, nurses, supermarkets or Ryanair.

McElearney ended with a plea and a warning: “Minister, we are not looking for money – we are looking for a licence to farm.

“There are dairy farmers from every one of the 26 counties here because it matters… if you don’t get [the derogation] … we will bring the people to the streets of Dublin and we will upset the apple cart.”

Mark Connors of Waterford IFA challenged the minister on unidentified water pollution being apportioned to agriculture.

“Are you willing to do something about that domestically, so we no longer get blamed for pollution that we’re not responsible for, and in Brussels that they understand that the level of pollution being attributed to farming is not accurate?”