Members of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) travelled to Brussels this week to urge Irish MEPS to support a proposed amendment to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).
The proposed amendment seeks to revert the directive back to EU Parliament’s original position before the trilogue negotiations took place with the EU Commission and the EU Council.
The delegation included IFA National Poultry chair Nigel Sweetnam, IFA National Pig chair Roy Gallie and IFA National Poultry vice-chair Brendan Soden.
They said that without this amendment the IED would bring very small pig and poultry units into a scenario where they needed a full Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licence.
IED
Currently, pig farms with more than 275 sows integrated and layer farmers with more than 40,000 birds require a licence.
The new requirement proposed in the IED would mean that pig farmers with 94 sows and layer farms with 21,000 birds would require a licence under the same directive which also covers chemical factories.
IFA National Poultry chair Nigel Sweetnam said that this proposal was totally over the top.
“This is typical of the type of illogical EU legislation that is angering farmers.
“This legislation was intended for ‘industrial scale activities’ not for relatively small poultry farmers,” he said.
IFA National Pig chair Roy Gallie believes that the proposal will put smaller pig farmers out of business.
“Requiring family run pig farms to have a full licence will put more pressure on smaller producers who will not be able to afford the cost of applying for and maintaining a licence,” he said.
IFA National Poultry vice-chair and egg producer Brendan Soden added that the directive, as it is currently proposed would even apply to organic egg producers.
“Licensing brings a complex application process which would incur professional fees and application fees.
“The whole thing is crazy and the parliament must accept this amendment,” he said.