Overall, water quality in Ireland “is relatively good compared” to other EU countries, according to the director of Teagasc.
Prof. Frank O’Mara said although there “are waters in the country that must be improved” over half – 54% – of surface water bodies have satisfactory, good or high, “ecological status”.
But, the Teagasc director also told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, that in relation to Ireland’s water quality and the nitrates derogation there are currently some “challenges”.
This includes the timeframe that is needed to allow new measures to show improvements in water quality.
Prof. O’Mara told the committee yesterday (Wednesday, March 6) that a total of 39 individual measures had been “transposed into Nitrates Action Plan (NAP) Statutory Instruments in the four years since 2020”.
The Teagasc direction also highlighted the challenge of “having sufficient slurry storage on farms so that farmers can maximise its nutrient use efficiency and reduce its impact on water quality”.
The Committee on Agriculture has over the last number of weeks being discussing the subject of Compliance with the Nitrates Directive: Implications for Ireland.
Prof. O’Mara highlighted to committee members that among the criteria why Ireland received a nitrates derogation included its “long growing season, high percentage of grassland, and high potential for nitrogen (N) uptake annually”.
“Despite some evolution of farming systems in Ireland over the past two decades, the core success of these production systems is still their capacity to utilise high levels of grass produced over a long growing season by grazing animals.
“Therefore, the fundamental basis underpinning Ireland’s justification for a derogation remains in place,” he said.
Water quality
Prof. O’Mara also stressed to the Committee on Agriculture that there needs to be “a greater focus on engagement of all farmers and key stakeholders at catchment level to raise awareness and apply targeted measures to reduce nutrient losses to water.
“Targeted measures are needed because Ireland’s landscape is heterogeneous in terms of factors controlling N and phosphorous (P) transfer pathways, and weather, soil type, and hydromorphology have a big impact on nutrient loss to water,” he warned.
The Teagasc director said that if there was a further decrease to the nitrates derogation farm profitability would “be reduced by up to 29% (€700/ha) on the most severely affected farms (Band 3)”.
“Over 2,000 farmers were affected by the cut to 220kg of organic N per hectare, but further reductions would affect even more farmers, and the impact would progressively increase as the level of stocking rate cut increases,” Prof. O’Mara detailed.
He also outlined that any further reduction in relation to the nitrates derogation would likely “reduce national milk production and increase average milk processing costs in the processing sector”.
According to Prof. O’Mara, the impact of these farm level and processor effects would be overall negative “on the competitiveness of the dairy sector, and on rural communities”.
“They could also be an additional barrier to new entry into dairying and add to the challenge of generational renewal already faced.
“This has the potential to further increase the competition for land which has been cited as a concern amongst farmers,” he said.