Derogation cuts coming for Timoleague as nitrate levels remain high
Cork South-West Michael Collins said farmers in Timoleague were doing their utmost, and it would set a good example to the dairy sector if they were rewarded, rather than have their derogation reduced.
Nitrates in the river leaving the Timoleague agricultural catchment are double what they should be to achieve good ecological status in the adjoining estuary, agriculture minister Martin Heydon said last week.
He said it is why the catchment has been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the areas requiring a nitrate reduction measure next December, with the maximum derogation stocking rate reducing from 250kg to 220kg of organic nitrogen per hectare.
On an annual basis, derogation farmers in these areas will have an effective limit of 247.5kg this year, and 220kg in 2026.
The minister was responding in the Dáil to Independent Ireland TD for Cork South-West Michael Collins, who said lowering the stocking rate to 220kg would have minimal, if any, impact on water quality.
In 2024, the derogation stocking rate limit was dropped from 250kg to 220kg across much of Ireland, in line with results of a two-year water quality review required by the European Commission.
The new derogation limit of 247.5kg this year, and 220kg in 2026, has been extended to Co Cork north of the Blackwater river and to much of the farmland around Bandon, towards Kinsale, and west beyond Clonakilty along much of the coast (including the Timoleague catchment).
The 220k limit has been extended to most of Co Wexford. Smaller areas have been added in north Louth and north Co Dublin.
These are areas not considered under the commission’s criteria, but where the EPA identified a need for nitrate reduction to improve water. The new limit is applicable from December 1, to fall within the timeframe of the current nitrates action programme, which is part of Ireland's preparation for talks with the European Commission on retaining a nitrates derogation.
"Everything I am doing around derogation, while recognising the integral importance of dairy farming for our rural economy, the community, farmers and farm families, is to make sure we continue to have a derogation", said Mr Heydon.
He said the December date was also selected to give farmers time to adjust to a limit of 247.5kg this year, and 220kg from next year on.
In the Dáil, Mr Collins said farmers in Timoleague were doing their utmost, and it would set a good example to the dairy sector if they were rewarded, rather than have their derogation reduced.
Fine Gael Senator Noel O'Donovan had also pleaded their case, saying rivers in the area were visually pristine. He said farmers there fear EPA testing in the bay at Courtmacsherry picks up residual pollution, which he linked to wastewater facilities.
Mr Collins said it had been demonstrated in Teagasc's agricultural catchment programme at Timoleague that nitrate concentration in water did not proportionally increase when stocking rates increased.
Since 2008, the Teagasc catchments programme researched and advised on solutions to meet environmental targets in Timoleague and five other locations around Ireland.
The programme covered 758 hectares south of Timoleague village, one of Ireland's heaviest stocked grass-based dairy areas, drained by a stream into Courtmacsherry Bay.
Mr Heydon said nitrates levels in 2024 in Timoleague were at their lowest level since recording began in 2009, but were still 100% too high in the river leaving the catchment.
"I am a little bit concerned that there is complacency coming in around the country where people think we will have to get it.
"This is absolutely critical for our rural economy, not just for the 7,000 derogation farmers. For a tillage farmer or some other farmer besides a derogation farmer, the impact on land availability if the derogation is gone or is reduced further will be really significant.
"We have a very strong story to tell, because our farmers are making great efforts to maintain that derogation. That said, I cannot leave any weak spot in our case.
"I have to implement all the measures we committed to in the previous action programmes, and this is a key part of that. It has been designed to have a minimal impact on the deputy's constituents for this year, but the biggest reward I can get them is a derogation beyond the end of this year."
