Farmers under seige from nitrates directive

IRISH agriculture is under huge pressure in the run up to the implementation of the Nitrates Directive.

This directive is a crisis in the making and reassurances from the Department have done nothing to erase the concerns of ICMSA.

Its president Pat O’Rourke says the “wolf is snapping at our heels and if the directive goes ahead as proposed the dairy sector will be under siege”. Mr O’Rourke has a huge concern that the derogation the Government believes it can win, even if it does win it, will still place the 10,000 farmers above the stocking limit under enormous pressure to prove stocking rates above the directive are not environmentally damaging.