No deal yet when it comes to derogation - Heydon

Minister Heydon was met with a 1,000 plus crowd at the IFA's Nitrates Derogation national meeting at Corrin Mart, Fermoy.

IFA hosted a national meeting regarding Nitrates Derogation, which saw Minister of Agriculture Martin Heydon give an address and answer questions from the crowd.

Following a national meeting on Nitrates Derogation hosted by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Minister of Agriculture, Martin Heydon, said he has no deal agreed.

We don’t have a derogation on the first of January. I can’t give any commitments beyond that. We don’t have a deal done,” Minister Heydon told the crowds, who were over 1,000 people strong.

The event, hosted at Corrin Mart, Fermoy, Co Cork, had attendees from all over the country, with some travelling from as far away as Monaghan to attend the national meeting. With the main hall and overflow room full, there was only space for people seeking an audience with the minister to stand.

“I am trying to get the best possible deal with the most amount of time,” Minister Heydon assured the crowd ahead of his meeting with EU Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall, who will be visiting Ireland this Friday to discuss the possibility of the continuation of the Nitrates Derogation in Ireland.

The crowd heard speeches from several major figures within IFA and the agricultural sector alongside the Minister of Agriculture. Speeches on the night included IFA President Francie Gorman, IFA Director of Policy/ Chief Economist, Tadgh Buckley, President of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) Edward Carr, Macra President Josephine O’Neill, Chairman of Meat Industry Ireland (MII) Philip Carr, Director of Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) Conor Mulvihill, and IFA National Environment and Rural Affairs Committee Chair John Murphy.

Following the address from President Gorman, IFA Director of Policy/ Chief Economist, Tadgh Buckley, presented the potential impacts of the loss of derogation, which was published by Teagasc.

In his speech, he explained that if farmers were to lose derogation, it would cost dairy farmers on average 19% of their incomes. Over half of dairy farmers operate above the 170kg threshold, meaning they are operating under derogation or exporting slurry.

If all impacted farmers were to downsize as a result of losing derogation, it would result in a 14% drop in the national herd. If farmers tried to retain current cow numbers, farmers would have to acquire additional land equivalent to County Kildare.

This would then have a knock-on effect of a €1bn annual reduction in dairy exports, which does not take into consideration the higher downstream economic impacts.

A major point of contention with attendees and speakers alike was the threat that poor water quality poses to the degradation going forward.

Following the Water Quality in Ireland Report 2019-2024, published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where agriculture was listed as one of the main pollutants of Irish water.

In his presentation, Mr Buckley compared the top four counties in river quality against the top four counties in derogation density. Through this comparison, Cork, which has the second-highest density of land designated in derogation (26.8%), was within the top four counties in river quality, with only 32.7% of rivers below a ‘good’ status.

The bottom four counties in Ireland in terms of river water quality were Kildare, Louth, Meath and Dublin. Now there’s not a lot of cows in those four counties, but there’s a lot of people,” Mr Buckley explained.

“I don't want anyone to go away from this room thinking that we don't have a role to play in this water quality. We have a role, and we have to do we have to keep up the momentum, and we have to keep doing the right things on farms… If anybody else thinks that taking away the derogation will fix water quality. Sorry, the statistics don't back it up,” he concluded.

Following the speeches, one message was very clear for Minister Heydon, failure to secure a nitrates derogation extension will not be an option in the eyes of farmers and stakeholders he represents.