Dardis rattles IFA delegation
One would have expected a retired farmer and ex-agricultural journalist to have a benign attitude to farmers. On the contrary, the comments of Senator John Dardis during the recent Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs debate on the Nitrates Directive must have been quite a eye-opener for the powerful IFA deputation led by its President, Padraig Walshe, which addressed the Committee.
Dardis, a Progressive Democrats senator and the ex-Tillage Editor of the Farmers Journal, declared that he had two interests in the debate, as a retired farmer and an angler.
He made it clear that he thought the IFA boycott of Teagasc was unfortunate, pointing out that Teagasc has contributed immeasurably to the welfare of agriculture in the State.
But where farmers really lost points in his estimation was his personal experiences of “cowboy” farmers who have no regard for the environment.
He told the debate he went to Cavan many years ago to meet a prominent pig farmer, and he said if he had enough time he would reclaim Lough Sheelin, because he would put enough slurry into it.
“There are cowboys, as there are in any industry”, observed Senator Dardis.
When he travelled to Co Kerry on a wet January day last year, he was surprised to see slurry being spread in the pouring rain.
He accepted that nutrient levels on the land are moderate in Ireland compared to other countries, such as Holland and Denmark. That generality is not the problem, however, he said - the problem is the level at which the potential for pollution arises.
One part per billion of phosphorus in a lake could cause eutrophication, he said.
Senator Dardis said he wanted to point the finger also at Coillte, and noted that phosphorus is locked in mineral soils, but not peat soils. But it could also come from household detergents.
He pointed out that nitrogen is locked up by winter cereals, but in fallow ground, is released because of our temperatures, and one cannot predict what the soil will release, only what one is applying in the bag. There are large variations in what the soil will release into the environment from season to season, depending on temperature and rainfall.
Senator Dardis also pointed out that pressure on farm product prices is bringing down the marginal kilogram of nitrogen all the time. Padraig Walshe agreed that the price for farm produce is dropping and the cost of fertilisers is increasing, but if the new limits are included in legislation and the economics ever change again, farmers are “strapped“.
Senator Dardis’ bottom line is that the environment is of extreme value to us as an exporting food country.
He said some of the arguments made about the Nitrates Directive recall those made about cattle hormones.
The outcome there was that if the consumer wants cattle free of anabolic steroids, that is what the consumer gets, and the common good arises in the Nitrates Debate too.
The debate should serve to remind farmers of the sensitivities of the broader community to the nitrates issue - of people such as anglers, who outnumber farmers in Ireland, and are especially sensitive to environment issues, and of everyone in business who has to endure the levels of bureaucracy which farmers are protesting so loudly against.
Farmers worries about production are just one of the many factors to be taken into account.
