The Social Democrats has said that the nitrates derogation “cannot continue and must be phased out in a controlled manner” in its General Election 2024 manifesto, which was released today (Tuesday, November 19).
Last week, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said that the party would not promise it would work to retain the derogation, and that “all the indications from Europe is that the derogation will not be available to us”.
However, the Social Democrats’ manifesto has gone a step further, with the party stating that the derogation must come to an end.
The party’s position on the derogation is outlined under the heading of ‘A Fair Transition for Farmers’.
This also includes a commitment to incentivise a herd reduction, with the party calling for policymakers to “find a way for farmers to act in-line with national policy goals while maintaining living standards”.
According to the party, some sectors “will need to be scaled back in line with our climate targets”, and that it would work to diversify the incomes of farmers in those sectors, including into energy production.
However, the party also envisages farmers leaving the sector, saying that funding should be ringfenced to provide them with support and funding for education and training in other areas with employment prospects.
The Social Democrats wants to design a framework of incentives to use land for tillage rather than dairy, as part of a move towards greater uptake of tillage farming.
The Social Democrats said that a “key part” of agriculture policy must be to reach the sector’s emissions reduction targets while “ensuring that farmers are adequately assisted to implement, and compensated for, the changes they must make”.
The party said that, if in government, it will engage with stakeholders, including farmers and their communities, to “map out a coherent transition plan” so farmers do not “disproportionately bear the brunt the transition”.
As part of that, the party said it would create a €1.5 billion “Fair Transition Fund”. This would provide for a debt forgiveness scheme and a grant funding scheme that would “allow indebted farms to move away from current models of farming without undue financial loss”.
The Social Democrats, if in government, would also aim to reconfigure money flowing into the sector to make farms more sustainable and to incentivise good environmental practices.
On the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Social Democrats intends to use the CAP Strategic Plan to “select instruments and measures that best support the delivery of all policy goals, not just in agriculture”.
The party has also called for a simpler CAP that “ensures more farm payments are targeted towards low-income farmers”.
The party also wants to work to increase the environmental ambition of CAP, so that farmers would only have access to payments if they “comply with a set of basic environmental norms”.
Separately, the Social Democrats also wants to reform the Agri-Food Regulator as an Independent National Food Regulator (INFR), which would be tasked with enforcing EU-wide rules on unfair trading practices (UTPs).
The party said it would also design a framework to restrict below-cost procurement by larger retailers, wholesalers and food processors.
On live exports, the party said it would begin the process of phasing this out, and in the meantime would ban live exports to countries with lower animal welfare standards.
Other commitments in the Social Democrats’ election manifesto include:
- Expanding the Irish horticulture sector;
- Achieving shorter and more local supply chains between producers and consumers;
- Opposing unfair competition to EU farmers from products produced to lower standards elsewhere;
- Accommodating an additional 10,000 farmers in the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES);
- Changing the law to pave the way for a hemp industry here;
- Supporting bee keeping by allowing beekeepers use land in bogs;
- Reducing dependence on chemical fertiliser;
- Incentivising Irish farmers to grow more animal feed;
- Improve the affordability of sexed semen;
- Incentivising the reduction of all pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics in all types of farming;
- Establish a free-range certification for pig farming.