Nitrates laws more stringent than REPS standards

FOR the past nine years Richard Connell has been farming at Gurtyowen, near Goleen in west Cork, to the highest European Union environmental standards.

He is one of nearly 50,000 Irish farmers who participate in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS). Participants are rewarded for farming to a nutrient management plan.

Mr Connell won the RDS National Conservation Award in 2000 and Teagasc have brought people to his dairy farm to demonstrate how he runs his enterprise.