There is too much nitrogen and phosphorous getting into Ireland’s waterways, Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan has highlighted.
“Nitrogen is coming mainly from agricultural fertilisers and manures, and phosphorus is coming mainly from agricultural run-off and wastewater discharges,” he said.
The Minister was speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2022 water quality report, published earlier this month.
The report found that, overall, there was no significant improvement in the biological quality of Ireland’s rivers or lakes in 2022. Where improvements were made in some waterways, reduced water quality in others had a cancelling-out effect.
Working with farmers
Commenting on the report, Minister Noonan said that it is “now clear that if there is to be clean, fresh water to support nature’s biodiversity”, government needs to work closely with farmers to reduce the loss of nutrients from their lands.
The Minister highlighted that the weeks since the water quality report was published, “divisive approaches can be used by some to create fear and misunderstanding in an attempt to pit farmer against environmentalist”.
However, he insisted such a divide is one which is “artificial”.
“We all know we cannot have good agricultural production without healthy nature and clean water, and we cannot restore nature without our farmers, without grazing animals or without productive use of our land,” he explained.
Regional pressures
The Green Party Minister of State drew attention to the water quality issues of the southeast in particular, an area with high levels of dairy and tillage production.
Warning that the farm sector cannot “shy away from the scale of the challenge”, he highlighted the water quality of the Barrow Estuary in Co Kilkenny, which the EPA found to have a level of nitrogen 83% above the required threshold value.
“Four of the top five highest [nitrogen] concentration areas were in the southeast,” he told the Dáil.
Retailers
However, refraining from putting all the blame on individual farmers, Minister Noonan called on government, industry and retailers to support farmers to improve water quality.
“The Irish agrifood sector markets itself on Ireland’s clean, green image. Our dairy processors, in particular, enjoy the benefits of a derogation facility within the nitrates directive.
“Our tillage farms supply food and drink industries, which are selling to international markets. Environmental sustainability also needs economic sustainability, but industry needs to provide farmers with a reasonable economic return for operating sustainably within the limits of their land.
“Farmers will need programmes that include both economic returns for doing the right thing and ready access to practical, farm-level advice,” he advised.
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