River water quality has improved, says minister

THE decline in river water quality has been halted, Minister of State Noel Ahern has confirmed.

Farmers who oppose the Nitrates Directive will also take heart form his confirmation that use of phosphate and potassium fertiliser has fallen by 30% since 1995, and that of nitrogen fertiliser by almost 15%.

But he said agriculture contributes 35% of Ireland’s disproportionately high amounts of greenhouse gases, and he revealed that about 16% of the total gases reduction sought in the national climate change strategy must come from Agriculture. This means farms are targeted for a reduction of 2,410,000 megatonnes (mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases, in order to meet Ireland’s international Kyoto Protocol commitments. Minister Ahern was launching the second edition of Climate, Weather and Irish Agriculture for the AGMET Group at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.