The head of water quality at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said that the department is still in talks with the European Commission on how to apply habitats assessments to nitrates derogation approvals.

It was revealed during the summer that the commission would be asking Ireland to demonstrate compliance with the EU Habitats Directive when granting a derogation in the next Nitrates Action Programme (NAP) - if Ireland retains the derogation after this year.

This has led to concerns that granting of a derogation to farmers would rely on 'appropriate assessments' being carried out under the Habitats Directive, possibly on a farm-by-farm basis.

Ted Massey, the head of water quality at the department, has said that Ireland is looking at enforcing that requirement on a "catchment or sub-catchment approach".

He was speaking the Teagasc Water Quality Conference, which is being held at the Heritage Hotel in Killenard, Co. Laois today (Wednesday, October 29).

The event comes after the government published a draft of Ireland's sixth NAP, which has now been put to public consultation.

Speaking to Agriland at the event today, Massey said: "In terms of the proposals for the sixth NAP, we're very much building on the approach set out in the water and agriculture collaborative approach.

"We're aiming to work with the industry to continue the good work that is happening, to develop further momentum and ultimately deliver the improvements in water quality that we’re all seeking to see," Massey added.

"We believe we will best do that through the optimum combination of regulation; knowledge transfer and awareness raising; and incentivisation, and that's what we’re setting out in terms of the proposed measures for the next NAP.

"We’ve made a number of presentations over recent months at the nitrates committee in Brussels, but we’re also engaging very closely bilaterally with the commission as well," Massey said.

On the Habitats Directive, Massey said that the commission is looking for a more "granular approach" to carrying out the appropriate assessments.

"Essentially the assurances the commission is seeking regarding the Habitats Directive are evolving, they’re evolving based on the evolving case law at European level, and I suppose heretofore, we, Ireland, have always achieved compliance with our obligations under the Habitats Directive by assessing the Nitrates Action Programme and the derogation at a national level through one programme-level assessment," he explained.

"We have proposed that we would take a catchment or sub-catchment approach to that, and that is obviously something that is still subject to discussions with the commission, and then we'll get to a point where hopefully we can roll that out then in future years," he added.