The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, should have been invited to Ireland at a much earlier stage, according to the Independent TD for Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae.
Deputy Healy-Rae told Agriland today (Tuesday, September 20) that be believes there is “awful confusion” in the government over current derogation issues because the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine “does not seem to be aligned at all” with regards to the whole process with the Taoiseach.
“There seems to be a lack of joined up thinking in what is happening between what Europe is doing and what the Irish government is doing,” he said.
“The mninister for agriculture one day said that’s it – ball burst, game over, door shut, no discussions, but then the following day the Taoiseach comes along and says no I am going to ask the commissioner to talk to us.
“They’re supposed to be sitting around the cabinet and discussing things but they’re on completely different agendas,” the deputy added.
In his opinion the “custodians” of the land are the people who own it, the farmers, but he believes the rug has been “pulled out from underneath them as regards derogation”.
“Our farmers are the forgotten people in this whole thing when they are talking about derogation, when they are talking about negotiating they have to remember the impact this is going to have on our family farms.
“The real green party, the real people who adore land, who want to protect our waterways, who are doing everything so far they could to improve their situations are the farmers – the men and women who own agricultural land, who own forestry land. They are the people who we should be listening to,” Deputy Healy-Rae said.
Minister McConalogue
In an interview with Agriland yesterday at the National Ploughing Championships, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, warned that there needs to be a collective effort by farmers to retain the current nitrates derogation.
“We have a big battle now on our hands to keep the derogation we have and to get it renewed whenever it expires at the end of 2025.
“The commission, given the water quality data that we have over the last ten years, wanted a lower threshold than the 220 [kg organic nitrogen (N) per hectare] in the negotiations we had back in late 2021. We fought hard to get it up to the 220,” he said.
Minister McConalogue has also warned that there is no guarantee that the derogation will be extended by the EU Commission beyond 2025.