A combination of weather and “lag time” may be some of the key reasons why water quality data has not shown a level of improvement, according to one of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM) senior inspectors.
However, Ted Massey, a senior inspector in DAFM’s Nitrates and Biodiversity Division, today (Wednesday, February 7) told the Teagasc Water Quality Conference, that the government remains “committed” to seeking a continuation of the current nitrates derogation.
But he also stressed the importance of positive trends in water quality in relation to Ireland’s efforts to maintain its nitrates derogation beyond 2025.
Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands are the only EU member states who now have a nitrates derogation.
Denmark’s derogation permitting a maximum stocking rate of 230 kg organic nitrogen (N) per hectare (N/ha) ends in July 2024 and they have requested a further extension.
The Netherlands’ derogation will also finish by the end of 2025
Derogation
Massey today outlined at the Teagasc event what Ireland needs to do to retain a derogation past 2025.
The first step is for the government to formally seek a nitrates derogation – which operates on a four year cycle.
“The government is committed to seeking a continuation of our derogation, so we will have to go to the commission and formally seek that.
“Then as with any other member state we have to make three presentations, to the nitrates committee in Brussels.
“The first presentation is around our water quality. Trends in water quality are key, the second and the third relate to what we are doing in terms of our existing measures, our agricultural systems and what we propose to do,” Massey added.
He also stressed that the European Commission is key – because to get to the third part of the process which is a vote, they have to be satisfied that they can grant a derogation and be assured that in doing so they can justify it and that this in turn will not impact on water pollution from agriculture.
Massey said: “We have to get to a point were the commission is on board and it is only when we get to that stage and when our nitrates action plan is finalised and in legislation that the commission will then be willing to put it too a vote of the member states.
“That final stage is when the commission justifies their decision to the member states and asks them to vote.”
Massey said to secure the derogation Ireland will need at least 15 member states that represent at least 65% of the European Union’s population.
He believes that this will not be Ireland ‘s biggest challenge instead he sees the challenge as getting to the stage that the commission is willing to put it to a vote.
Water quality
Also speaking at the conference today Dr. David Wall from Teagasc highlighted that since 2018, a total of 39 measures have been introduced to improve water quality for farms in deorgation and those not in derogation.
In relation to why water quality has not improved Massey identified what he believes are the key two reasons -poor weather and “lag-time”.
“If you think about in 2022, significant parts of the country had a drought, last year we had very extreme weather events as well.
“We don’t have any water quality data for last year yet, but it will be interesting to see how the weather has influenced that,” he said.
Massey said there is also the lag time to factor in to water quality position.
” In a lot of situations, in a year you would start to see improvements, but it can be significantly longer than that.
“I would be confident in time we will see greater improvements off the back of those 40 measures, but the challenge for us is that time is against us,” he added.