Ireland should be looking for pathways to move away from the nitrates derogation and towards farming with less inputs, Green Party MEP, Grace O’Sullivan has told the Agriland livestream.
MEP O’Sullivan said that there has been a lack of communication in preparing farmers for the cut in the derogation, however she believes that the European Commission will not move its position.
Instead, the member of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament said that the discussion should be about how farmers are going to be enabled to go forward.
“How are farmers going to be enabled to go forward recognising that we are one of the very few countries [the Netherlands, Denmark and Flanders in Belgium] in Europe that have a derogation.
“So my advice would be look for pathways where you are going to move away from the derogation because that’s where you will get the greatest support. We are outliers.
“We as a country need to be looking at the constraints that are in agriculture at the moment and look at what opportunities do we have as an island nation in a maritime climate,” MEP O’Sullivan said.
Nitrates derogation
Also speaking on the Agriland livestream in association with UPMC at the National Ploughing Championships today (Wednesday, September 20), was independent TD for Laois-Offaly, Deputy Carol Nolan.
Commenting that the commission did not allow enough time for the existing measures in place to improve water quality to show their effect, Deputy Nolan said:
“I believe that we should not take it that there is no more we can do. I think we need to unify as politicians.
“We need to come together with our farming organisations and we all need to sit down at the table and show the commissioner [for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius] that we haven’t been given enough time.”
Meanwhile, the Green Party MEP said that Ireland has a “very specific set of unique circumstances” for farming, and as a country we should look at how we and farm families are going to profit from that.
She added that if there was money coming from Europe, from a Green Party perspective, it would flow into environmental schemes and regenerative agriculture.
“I genuinely feel that the co-operation and the collaboration between farmers and the Greens isn’t as bad as people think it is,” she said adding that farmers know the challenges of climate change and water pollution.
Speaking on the Agriland livestream in association with UPMC at the National Ploughing Championships today, Fianna Fáil MEP, Billy Kelleher said that Ireland should be “ambitious” for farming.
“We should be ambitious for agriculture, we should be ambitious for our agri-food sector, and I don’t believe that reducing production is showing ambition and putting inhibition on what farmers are doing best which is producing food.
“And yes, we should be ambitious for the environment as well and they are not contradictory, they can be compatible. We should use the technologies that are coming to the fore,” MEP Kelleher said.
Highlighting the potential of anaerobic digestion (AD), he said that Ireland is “far behind” despite it being a “part solution” to the challenges in the nitrates issue, water quality and methane emissions.