The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Cork branch is protesting in Carrigaline, Co. Cork today (Friday, December 1) over what it said is the short timeframe given to reduce nitrates.
The protest began at 11.00a.m at Main Street, Carrigaline with two cows, and is expected to continue until 3.00p.m.
The farmers handed a letter in to Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment of Ireland, Simon Coveney, and visited Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath’s office.
The protest will continue to Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s office in Cork city centre.
Due to water quality concerns, the EU Commission has said that the derogation will be reduced to 220kg N/ha in most of the country from January.
Cork central IFA chair, Conor O’Leary said that farmers are “distraught” by the lack of a phase-in period for the new nitrates cut.
“We really needed to know this last spring. It’s not possible for us to make decisions and pathways for live animals from November 14 to the beginning of January, while hitting Christmas when factories and marts close and dairy sales finish up,” he said.
“The ask is that government would look at this again and just find a mechanism to allow our cows to calve down and to be sold in an orderly fashion because the only solution that we have at the moment is to put them to the factory,” O’Leary added.
IFA Poultry chair Nigel Sweetnam said it is important for sectors to come together for the IFA protest today.
“It’s all about unity, because today we’re protesting for the 3,000 derogation farmers, but in three years times that could be 10,000 farmers affected. It’s about the long-term picture,” he said.
He added that figures around the constituents of slurry have been a big problem.
Sweetnam is also a dairy farmer, and said from his own experience, he exported about 1.6 million litres of slurry two years ago, while now to be compliant, he will need to export 3.4 million litres.