Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has accused Fine Gael of “burying their head in the sand and continuing with a failed approach that’s walking farmers to a cliff edge”.
Deputy Cairns and Fine Gael MEP Colm Markey discussed the cut in the Nitrates Derogation on the Agriland livestream in association with UPMC at the Ploughing today (Tuesday, September 19).
The party leader described the decision to reduce the derogation limit in some areas to 220kg N/ha as a “cliff edge” which was “inevitable” but could have been prepared for.
Accusing Fine Gael of continuing with a “business-as-usual” scenario and “pushing” environmental constraints, she said that at the “very least, farmers deserve honesty but at best, stability”.
“This past week has been inevitable. We have known for some time that there are environmental constraints around our agricultural production – that has been no secret.
“The government has been aware of that, farm organisations have been aware of that, farmers, everybody in Teagasc, we have all known it,” Deputy Cairns said.
However, instead of “preparing” for that inevitability, she said there has been “denial” of the fact that it is happening and “faint outrage” about the situation over the past week.
“Here we are at the cliff edge and what are we hearing [is] we need to fight back, we need to try and keep the derogation that we have, we need to try then keep it at 220kg N/ha.
“All these things instead of saying what do we need to provide stability for the sector,” Deputy Cairns told the Agriland livestream at the National Ploughing Championships.
Nitrates Derogation
The Social Democrats leader said that by “wanting to keep the special treatment in terms of adding more nitrogen”, Ireland “jeopardises” the green brand it has.
Commenting that it is “high time” to decide what the future of the agriculture sector in Ireland will look like, Deputy Cairns told the Agriland livestream:
“Do we want Ireland to be the country that’s held as the example of most sustainable food production, of genuinely green production?
“I think we do and is this head-in-the-sand approach going to achieve that? No, we are walking to the next cliff edge for farmers.”
Her comments were met with criticism by MEP Markey who said they were a “misrepresentation of the situation”, and insisted that farmers are all up for a transition to become more sustainable.
Speaking about the importance of individual actions on the ground and the need to address the situation with regards to the nitrates, MEP Markey told the Agriland livestream:
“My point is that the real meaningful difference is that we can maintain the derogation that we have because water quality will improve if we deal with the issues on the ground.
“The derogation for most farmers is somewhat of a distraction from dealing with the real issues, because it is the individual issues on the individual farms that will make a real difference.”
The MEP highlighted that 5% of farms are under derogation in Ireland and half of those farms won’t be affected by the lower limit of 220kg N/ha which will apply in some areas from January 2024.
“This idea that we can just stop farming and it will all go away, the produce will be produced somewhere else at a much lesser sustainable footprint,” MEP Markey commented.