The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has expressed concern about legal action being taken by An Taisce in relation to the Nitrates Action Programme.
An Taisce is seeking a judicial review of the NAP through the High Court.
The application is rooted in what An Taisce claims is the “undisputed evidence of continuing deterioration of water quality in Ireland, where all the indicators are negative and continuing in a downward direction”.
President of ICMSA, Pat McCormack, said that the process of reconciling farming and food production to environmental realities is difficult and complex and much more multi-faceted than An Taisce seemed willing to recognise.
An Taisce
McCormack added that An Taisce’s “continued adoption of absolutist positions that were unwilling to recognise that there are social, economic and cultural aspects to the issue, in addition to their own environmental focus, meant that they were removing themselves from meaningful contributions to progress”.
“ICMSA is like most other bodies concerned with this; we want to be part of the solution because farmers want to be part of the solution.
“An Taisce’s approach seems to be predicated on the idea that commercial farming in Ireland has to be ended and removed from any future scenario with rural communities becoming some kind of nature reserve with a few organic farms scattered throughout.”
The farmer representative claimed that An Taisce has been given many chances to contribute meaningfully to complex answers to complex questions.
“We’ve never got that from them, and we have to start asking ourselves whether we are wasting our time?” McCormack continued.
“We have no chance of working our way through to the feasible solution on reconciling sustainability and commercial farming while we continue to indulge groups who do not want to recognise what’s possible and over what period,” he concluded.