August deadline for EU nitrates programme
The revised draft issued by Environment Minister Martin Cullen last week includes an explicit commitment to seek a derogation of up to 250kg of organic nitrogen per hectare per annum.
Former Kerry Group boss Denis Brosnan has been appointed as an independent adviser to the programme. He will examine all comments received and will make recommendations to the Minister, before the nitrates programme is finalised.
The Minister last week invited the farm organisations to work with the Department of Agriculture and Food and Teagasc, to ensure that the programme, and Ireland's application to the European Commission for a derogation, are successful.
But IFA president John Dillon described the latest draft of the programme as unnecessarily damaging to the country's best farmers.
He was particularly critical of the form-filling proposed for farmers who need to farm with heavy stocking rates.
The ICMSA said the most recent proposals could undermine commercial agriculture and were more restrictive than the Government's draft plan of last December.
The 29-page revised draft programme can be accessed on www.wfdireland.ie, or copies can be obtained from Ms Mary Boothman, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Custom House, Dublin 1. (Telephone 01-8882451; Fax 01-8882994; E-mail mary-boothman@environ.ie).
The Nitrates Directive has been implemented in Ireland since 1991 with monitoring of nitrate levels in waters, the assessment of the trophic (nutritional) status of waters, the development of a code of good agricultural practice on nitrate pollution in 1996 and a range of other measures to safeguard water quality.
On May 29, Mr Cullen enacted EU regulations which specified that the Nitrates Directive action programme now applies to the entire country.
