The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has met with officials from the European Commission to defend the nitrates derogation, which the association called “absolutely critical and indispensable”.
Yesterday, a team of officials from the commission’s Directorate-General for Environment landed in Ireland, who have been invited here to see the work being done by farmers to improve water quality.
The commission team will engage with farm organisations and industry bodies during its time here.
Speaking following a meeting with the officials, ICMSA president Denis Drennan welcomed them to Ireland to “see first hand” the work being done by Irish farmers to improve water quality “in our unique grass-based system of production”.
“I hope the commission heard the message loud and clear that farmers are working hard on water quality, and will continue to do so,” Drennan said.
“It is imperative that farmers are given the time to deliver the water quality improvements that will follow efforts already made, as well as those currently underway and planned. I am confident that a fair assessment will continue to allow Ireland to farm at a level that will deliver sustainability on an economic, social and environmental basis,” Drennan added.
According to Drennan, there are cases of farmers farming at 250kg of nitrogen (N) per hectare in areas where water quality “is pristine”.
“The key challenge going forward must involve the right measure in the right place, rather than blanket one-size-fits-all measures that will destroy the economic and social fabric of rural Ireland and critically undermine our largest indigenous industry.
“The retention of the derogation is absolutely critical and indispensable if the family farm model is to have any chance of survival. It is simply a fact that many small and medium sized farms were dependent on the derogation to deliver a reasonable standard of living,” he added.
The ICMSA president called for Ireland to be given a reasonable time period to prove the effectiveness of the measures already undertaken on water quality.
“Farmers are working daily on their farms to improve water quality… Farmers have changed, they are continuing to change and have invested massively in environmental improvements on their farms,” he said.
“The science clearly shows that there is a time-lag between measures being introduced and improvements in water quality and ICMSA is asking the commission to recognise the science, recognise that time-lag, and give farmers the time needed to deliver and show the improvements,” Drennan added.