A Fine Gael senator has questioned if a recently published Oireachtas committee report was even considered as part of the government’s new nitrates derogation renewal plan.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue today (Tuesday, August 20) published his department’s official plan to progress the objective of retaining Ireland’s nitrates derogation after 2025.
On Friday (August 16), the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine published a report containing 19 recommendations to help secure Ireland’s nitrates derogation.
The report was based on evidence presented to the committee in hearings between February and July, including from government departments, farming organisations, the agricultural industry and environmental groups.
Senator Tim Lombard, who is a member of the Oireachtas committee, told Agriland the timing of the new department plan was “a total surprise” to him.
“I knew the department [was] talking about doing something, but we were literally going through six months of hearings.
“We’d all the major influential people regarding the nitrates derogation before us.
“We’d assumed that the departments were going to look at this report, which is quite a comprehensive report, take the considerations and the issues in that and then tie it into the actual master plan,” he said.
Nitrates
The Cork South West senator continued: “You’d have to question, was there any consideration of the report at all or was this already just pre-ordained regarding the actual, so-called roadmap.
“I actually think it’s quite unfortunate that they published it so fast that they didn’t take into consideration the amount of witnesses that came before us, all their information and all their time that they gave to the committee, which is very much welcomed, to make sure we had a comprehensive report.
“That’s what we were trying to do; get a well balanced, comprehensive report to make sure that we could then set the roadmap that was required to make sure we can actually keep our derogation,” he said.
Senator Lombard said that an “all of government approach” should include the department of agriculture, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the relevant Oireachtas committees.
“I am slightly concerned about if they even looked at the report, I personally don’t think they did. I just think they actually had their own ideals and they were going to press ahead with their own ideals.
“If we’re to get our derogation sorted and move forward on our water quality, we need to bring everyone along this road and that involves farming organisations, Teagasc and other interested parties, because they all have a say here.
“What we did in the committee was we brought everyone in, we gave everyone plenty of time. Then we considered it and in the month of August we went ahead and published the report, so we did it as quickly and promptly as we possibly could,” the senator continued.
“It’s disappointing that the department didn’t wait for that report to be fully published and for them to review it before they actually came forward with the roadmap.”
The Fine Gael senator said that the focus must now be on trying to move forward and secure Ireland’s derogation.
“It’s about trying to take into consideration both what the department and the committee put forward regarding the nitrates derogation, and now it’s about trying to make sure that the [EU] Commission understands the key factors in it,” he said.
Senator Lombard hopes that serious consideration will be given to a key recommendation in the committee’s report to establish an inter-departmental taskforce, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach.