A Social Democrats TD today (Thursday, November 14) said that her party is “not going to promise we’re going to fight for the derogation”.
However, launching the party’s Climate Action and Nature Protection policy document, Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore, said that the Social Democrats would “be honest” with farmers and also set out where she believes Ireland’s battle to retain the nitrates derogation is going.
The Wicklow TD accused Fianna Fáil of “giving farmers false hope by pledging to fight for the retention of the nitrates derogation”.
Speaking at the launch of the policy document, Deputy Whitmore said: “The reality is all the scientific evidence and all the indications from Europe is that the derogation will not be available to us”.
She said that the Social Democrats wanted to “work with farmers and support them so they do not face a cliff edge when the derogation inevitably ends”.
But Fianna Fáil’s Cork south west general election candidate, Christopher O’Sullivan, hit back at the party and described the Social Democrats position on the nitrates derogation as “a threat to the dairy industry”.
Deputy O’Sullivan believes the retention of the derogation is “essential for the survival of dairy farming, not only for rural communities but also for the broader local economy”.
Social Democrats
According to the Social Democrats the “climate crisis is the single biggest threat to our environment and to our long-term quality of life”.
It has pledged that as “part of the next government, the Social Democrats will ensure that the necessary systems and structures are in place so that Ireland can play its role in creating a sustainable planet where no one is left behind”.
In its Climate Action, Nature Protection policy document the party sets its plans to create a revised Climate Action Plan that it said would “allow us to reach our international targets by 2030 and avoid €8 billion in fines”.
One of its key policies in relation to agriculture is a proposal to establish a €1.5 billion fair transition fund for farmers and rural communities.
It also details that it would use financial incentives, from the Fair Transition Fund, to “encourage herd reduction in line with our environmental targets” and design a debt forgiveness scheme, using grant funding, that would allow “indebted farms to move away from current models of farming without undue financial loss”.
The Social Democrats also want to develop policy that ensures the Department of Agriculture, food processors and supermarkets “pay farmers enough to support cleaner and less-polluting forms of agriculture and land use, whilst being financially sustainable”.
The party has also highlighted a proposal to “phase out environmentally harmful subsidies and change the thrust of payments to farmers to ensure good practice is rewarded”.