Nitrates but no export refund

LAST week was disastrous for Irish farmers, with the Nitrates Directive published by Environment Minister Dick Roche on Monday now looking in hindsight like the worst move of all.

That committed the Government and farmers to together spend €1 billion on protecting water quality from farm animals - animals which will probably be halved in number, at least, over the next five years.

Farmers had been living in hopes the EU would resist pressures on the Common Agricultural Policy. They were coping as best they could with decoupling, but the declining terms of trade were too much for many Irish tillage farmers, who cut their grain production by a massive 28% in 2005, compared to 2004.