The Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the current map showing differing nitrates areas must be the “final decision with no further encroachments”.
ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that the “very least” that the affected farmers who are in areas where the derogation will drop to 220kg N/ha are due is a “degree of certainty”.
A map published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) includes white and red zones and outlines where additional measures are needed (red zones) to improve water quality.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed that there will be two different zones in the country at 220kg N/ha (red) and at 250kg N/ha (white) based on the map.
The minister told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last week that his department has committed to concluding the mapping by the end of this month.
While he said the European Commission identified some “very limited scope to interpret elements of the mapping”, the minister emphasised that the impacts of this will be “marginal”.
Commenting that the ICMSA could “not accept a situation where the status of areas was still in any sense, under some kind of ongoing review”, McCormack said:
“As far as farmers are concerned, the current map that we have been told to consult must represent the final draft, the final decision.
“We cannot have farmers going week-to-week with some open-ended threat hanging over their farms. The current map had better be the last and only map that tips Irish farms into nitrates chaos.”
The map showing the areas still operating at 250kg N/ha and the red areas where, “most unfairly” the limit has been reduced to 220kg N/ha “must now be fixed”, the ICMSA president said.
“There can be no question of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) making further encroachments into those areas that are still at the higher rate of N,” he added.
McCormack said that having “failed” those farmers now in the red areas, the department is now obliged to “absolutely desist” from reducing the level of N over the remaining white areas.