Thiss week, Ray Ó Foghlú has detailed for us his experience with reporting a case of bad management of slurry spreading near his home in Co Clare. It’s not an easy thing to do – to call out something that’s not right in rural Ireland. Everyone is local and everyone is linked some way or another.

Often it’s not meant as a personal attack, or to put it another way, it shouldn’t be personal. Like many farmers, Ray has a deep love for nature and water quality. His goal is to protect that.

The bottom line is the impact of one bad actor can essentially bring everyone down. It’s not just farmers of course and in Clare, forestry, waste water plants, etc, are part of the challenge.

Right and wrong

However, farmers must control what they can first and thankfully we see and hear more farmers calling out what is right and wrong. Trying to identify where to make a complaint in person or anonymously is an issue that should be streamlined – the County Council, the Fisheries, the local adviser, etc.

Elsewhere, Professor Gerry Boyle suggests considering methane mitigation measures regarding future slurry investments. He might well be right. However, the Government needs to show its hand on this also.

We can’t keep asking farmers to invest with policy uncertainty and required slurry storage capacity expected to increase.