Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue is being called on to allow farmers, who have fallen foul of an exclusion from the nitrates derogation, the opportunity to remedy any breaches they may have committed.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has slammed the two-year exclusion from the derogation as “wholly disproportionate and merciless”.
Eamon Carroll, the association’s deputy president, called on the minister to announce the outcome of a review into the exclusion rule for what he called “often minor regulation breaches”.
“Both the procedures and penalties are as convoluted as they are crushing.”
“The system makes no allowance for inadvertent or accidental breaches and just wallops those farmers with a two-year exclusion regardless,” Carroll said.
“For example, how is it fair that a farmer who might not have fenced 10m of a watercourse is treated the same as a farmer who has not fenced a watercourse whatsoever?” he added.
“There is no nuance or graduation of breaches, just the same ‘sledgehammer to a nut’ ethos that’s wholly disproportionate and merciless,” he said.
Carroll said that he was aware of farmers who are currently trying to apply for a derogation (the application process for which was announced open by the minister this week) who are concerned that they could be excluded for breaches of the regulation in 2023 that could have been incorrect paperwork or a broken fence.
“[These farmers] must either rent more land that they don’t need at exorbitant prices or reduce cow numbers drastically, in many cases. Failing that, they can try to export slurry, which is getting more and more difficult,” the ICMSA deputy president said.
“They are being excluded for offences that are quite likely to have zero impact whatsoever on water quality, while the exclusion will have decisive and disproportionate impact from a farming, economic and wellbeing perspective,” he added.
He said that, at an Agricultural Water Quality Group meeting in December, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said it would review the rule.
“Given that farmers have until April 19 to submit the derogation, the minister needs to decide on this matter. We don’t have the time anymore for prevaricating about something that is so obviously penal and disproportionate.
“A two-year exclusion is totally disproportionate and there should be no exclusion from future year derogations, except for very serious offences,” Carroll commented.
“There is no reason why we can’t have a reasonable and fair approach on this matter and the ICMSA is asking the minister to write to all farmers excluded for two years and provide them with an opportunity to remedy the problem,” he added.