There are concerns that the introduction of a National Fertiliser Database may be undermined by a significant loophole involving fertiliser delivered to ports.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine met yesterday (Wednesday, September 28) to discuss the Veterinary Products, Medicated Feed and Fertiliser Regulation Bill 2022.
The bill provides for the establishment of the fertiliser database.
However, the committee heard that this system would be undermined by the ability of farmers to purchase fertiliser from outside the state.
Addressing this point, Senator Tim Lombard drew specific attention to the issue of fertiliser being shipped to ports here by Northern Irish suppliers before being moved to the farmer purchaser, without having to physically arrive in Northern Ireland first or be registered on the database.
Lombard said: “It is quite possible now that [the fertiliser] doesn’t even have to go to the north to end up on an Irish farm.
“So you could have a scenario where you could be dealing…with a northern supplier, and [the fertiliser] could be coming through a port in Waterford or Cork going straight to your farm,” he added.
Addressing the senator’s point, fertiliser purchasing manager for Tirlán John Carroll agreed that this is an issue, saying: “The product never needs to cross the border at all. It can work through a Northern Ireland merchant and arrive on southern farm without ever crossing the border.”
According to Lombard, fertiliser that is moved in this way would not be picked up by the database.
“That’s a very significant issue when you look at what we are trying to achieve here,” he said.
The senator said that the committee was hoping to have the minister appear for a sitting in late October.
“I think this is one of the issues we will have to raise [with the minister] because a loophole like that would literally make [the database] unworkable,” Lombard added.
In its submission to the committee, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) said that the most substantive issue with the proposed database is the acknowledgement by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that it will only apply to purchases of fertiliser made within the state.
“The ongoing capacity for farmers to purchase fertiliser from outside the state is an enormous black hole in the current plans for a [database], the ICOS submission said.
“It would be extraordinarily naive to assume, given examples from other products such as silage plastic and smokey coal, that similar loopholes will not be taken advantage of in this scenario,” it added.
“We acknowledge the [department’s] efforts to seek an all-island approach and appreciate the sensitivity at play.
“However, the lack of any clear timelines for a solution is very worrying,” ICOS said.