By Megan O’Brien
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has said that he believes a proposal to apply a 60% grant for nutrient storage from January 2025 will be approved by the European Commission.
Speaking during the Agriland Livestream today (Tuesday, September 17) at the National Ploughing Championships the minister confirmed that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has made a formal application to progress the proposal which would also include a separate ceiling of €90,000.
“It’s going through the process and I’m confident it will get approval, but we have to go through that process.
“One of the challenges is making sure we have enough nutrient storage to be able to store and not spread whenever it’s not suitable.
“The government is very strongly supporting farmers on this,” Minister McConalogue added.
The proposal is one of a number that were included in the DAFM’s official plan to progress the objective of retaining Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation post-2025, which was published last month.
Other measures included in the plan were the appointment of 50 ‘water quality advisors’ who will provide a free service to farmers to improve water quality in priority areas, and a €60 million innovation programme to financially support farmers taking action.
Minister McConalogue
During the livestream the minister also responded to the results of an independent survey commissioned by Agriland and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
The final results of the survey, collated today found that if there were a general election tomorrow, Fine Gael is the party which would receive the majority (27%) of first preference votes.
This figure increases to 33% when those who declared they will not vote or ‘don’t know who they will vote for’ are removed.
Minister McConalogue said he would “always be skeptical with online polls” and that his “focus is on working to support farmers in every way possible and the polls that count are the actual elections.”
The survey was conducted by Opinions Research and collected data from 1,500 people across all demographics who class themselves as ‘the decision makers’ on the farm.
The results from the survey also suggest that more than half of respondents feel the country needs a new political party to represent Ireland’s rural and farming communities, and established that six in 10 respondents are concerned about the future viability of their farm.