Only 15% of the non-compliances with the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Regulations to protect water quality in the past two years were to do with slurry collection and storage, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said.
Based on data from the EPA’s National Agricultural Inspection Programme (NAIP) for 2022 and 2023, non-compliances with the GAP Regulations were detected on more than 30%
of farms inspected.
Of these non-compliances, 30% are to do with control of soiled water; 20% with the management of farmyard manure; and 20% with discharges that have a potential to adversely impact water quality.
The data has been shared by the EPA’s programme manager at the Office of Environmental Enforcement, Patrick Byrne at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Just under 1,000 farms were inspected by local authorities in 2022, which increased to 1,100 inspections in 2023, according to Byrne who said that farms are targeted based on where water quality is at risk due to agricultural activities.
Nitrates derogation
The meeting with the EPA is part of a series of meetings with different stakeholders to discuss Ireland’s nitrates derogation, after which the committee will compile a report and submit it to the European Commission.
The EPA, which published its most recent water quality report for 2023 last month, is not involved in the negotiations on the derogation, the director of the Office of Evidence and Assessment at the EPA, Dr. Eimear Cotter said.
Dr. Cotter said the EPA could not tell the committee which data the European Commission will use for its decision on the derogation. Around June 2025, the EPA will publish its water quality results for this year, she told the committee.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) will start negotiations on the derogation with the European Commission at the end of 2024 which will extend into the end of 2025, the committee heard earlier this year.
Water quality
The EPA’s latest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions report, which shows that agricultural emissions fell by 4.6% last year mainly due to an 18% reduction in fertiliser nitrogen use, was also raised by committee members.
Dr. Cotter, who described the 18% reduction in chemical fertiliser use as “really positive,” said the EPA is “hopeful” that they will see the results of reduced fertiliser use being translated into water quality into the future.
This, however, is a national figure and the EPA does not know where the reductions in fertiliser use are happening. The National Fertiliser Database will “help” the EPA see where fertiliser is being sold and identify where those reductions are happening, she said.
Chemical fertiliser accounts for 30% of the nutrients being applied to land, while 60% is coming from animals and 5% from sludges, as well as other “minor sources”, senior scientist at the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, Dr. Jenny Deakin said.