The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine is to start work on a in-depth report that will form the basis of a new campaign in Brussels to highlight why Ireland should “hold” a nitrates derogation of 220kg of organic nitrogen (N)/ha.
The chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine told Agriland that the committee will devote a “significant amount of time” on the new report that “will present the scientific evidence that is there” to support Ireland retaining its nitrates derogation.
Deputy Jackie Cahill said that the report will be wide-ranging, set out the environmental measures which farmers have already implemented, particularly in relation to water quality and also “back up Ireland’s ability to produce food sustainably”.
Brussels
“This report will highlight why Ireland should hold the 220kgN/ha and why it is essential for our dairy industry. We will include all relevant stakeholders and all scientific evidence because we want to produce a report that will stand up to scrutiny.
“As a committee we intend to intend to go back to Brussels with this report, hopefully in May or June – we will physically take it to Brussels and meet with various commissioners to give them this report.
“The committee went to Brussels the last time the decision was made. This time we want to go before the decision is made on the 220kgN/ha and put up a very strong argument in defense of our sustainable method of food production,” the chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine said.
The committee will meet for the first time in 2024 later this week on Wednesday, January 17.
According to Deputy Cahill, the nitrates derogation will be a key issue for the committee in the early months of 2024.
“We’ve dropped from 250kgN/ha to 220 and that’s bringing its own repercussions.
“The drop to 220 is going to cause a lot of financial issues for individual farmers and will also cause issues for the processing sector as regards the supply of milk.
“But any slippage from the 220kgN/ha would be terminal for our industry and our family farm structure,” the Tipperary TD warned.
He said one of the key arguments that the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine intend to put forward in Brussels in 2024 is that “sustainable food has to be produced”.
Deputy Cahill added: “We’re as good if not better than anywhere else in the world at doing that and that has to be recognised,
“There has to be a balance sheet because there is no point in replacing our production in western Europe to let it be produced somewhere else far less sustainability.
“We know that dairy production is increasing in China – I would like to know how climate friendly that production is in China – it is foolish in the extreme to prevent a country like us producing food and then at the same time let it be done less sustainably elsewhere.
“We do have to adapt, we do have to make changes but in my view the growing of grass and the production of food from that grass is the most sustainable model of producing food.”
According to the chair of the Oireachtas committee another key issue which will be high on the agenda for the committee in 2024 is the Nature Restoration Law.
“We will focus on what the impact of this will be in different parts of the country and we also intend to produce a report on Ireland and the Nature Restoration Law for Brussels as well,” Deputy Cahill added.