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LAST UPDATE | 19 Sep 2023
CLIMATE MINISTER EAMON Ryan has said a punitive approach to improving water quality will not work and that collaboration with farmers is needed.
He said that he does not believe Ireland or the European Union will change their positions on the nitrates derogation despite the Taoiseach inviting European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius for a meeting to discuss the issue.
Ryan was responding to a question about recent farmer protests over the forthcoming increase in the nitrates limit.
He refused to criticise farmers for their protests and instead pointed to the range of inititatives already in place to help improve water quality.
High concentrations of nitrates in land are damaging to humans and the environment and excessive amounts produced by agriculture is one of the primary causes of water pollution in Europe.
EU member states are required to monitor water quality and implement measures to limit the amount of nitrogen that seeps into the land and water, including in the agriculture sector.
Ireland is one of only three member states where farmers can avail of a derogation that permits them to farm at a higher rate of nitrogen per hectare than what is permitted elsewhere in Europe.
The current derogation is due to expire on 1 January 2026 and the EU has decided to reduce the limit to 220kg per hectare on 1 January 2024 in certain areas as the latest water quality results have not shown sufficient improvement.
The move has sparked pushback from farmers, who have called for the EU to reverse its decision and prompted Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to say he would seek a meeting with the Commission on the matter.
Speaking to reporters in New York today where he is attending the United Nations’ General Assembly, Minister Ryan said we need to think about how we can clean up our water while at the same time continuing to be good at farming and delivering food.
“This is absolutely doable, using both technological solutions and also incentives,” he said.
I don’t see Europe moving or changing on this.
“If anything, they have been deeply frustrated with Ireland over several decades that we haven’t taken the water quality issues seriously enough, but that is changing,” Ryan added.
He said it is his view that neither Ireland or the EU will “change tack” on the water quality issue.
Earlier today, the Minister for Agriculture stated that the European Commission has been “crystal clear” that there is “no prospect” of its decision to reduce Ireland’s nitrates derogation being reversed.
As the Ploughing Championships got under way in Co Laois this morning, a major topic of conversation among farmers is the recent EU decision to lower the nitrates derogation.
However, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that there is no prospect of the Commission changing its position.
“As minister, I’ll always be honest and straight with farmers in relation to any challenges we have in relation to the work we’re doing on their behalf and also in relation to how we prepare to support them in their farming enterprises,” McConalogue said, speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland programme.
“That derogation is based on the fact that we need to be seeing improvements in water quality,” he said.
The Commission has been crystal clear to me that there’s absolutely no prospect of it being reopened at the moment.
“It’s very clear now that our key objective here is to make sure we all work together to make sure whenever the current derogation comes up for renegotiation at the end of 2025, that we hold on to it because it is essential for so many farmers and important to our farming system.”
Farming campaigners however still believe that they can sway the Commission.
Irish Farmers’s Association Tim Cullinane told Morning Ireland that he met with the EU Commissioner for Agriculture in Brussels yesterday and that “the Commissioner was alarmed and shocked when I explained to him the importance of the derogation to Irish farmers”.
“Our Taoiseach gave us a commitment last Friday that he’s going to relook at this. The commissioner is going to relook at this,” Cullinane said.
“There can always be changes made. I’ve been involved in lobbying on nitrates for the last 20 years and decisions were made before and changed.”
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association Pat McCormack claimed the reduction in the derogation would “absolutely decimate the family farm model out there” and called for farmers to be given more time to show that changes already made on farms will increase water quality.
“We are very, very confident that the next set of results will be significantly better,” he said.
With reporting from Jane Matthews and Christina Finn.
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Wow… who’d have thought charging c.400% tax on a product would incentivise a black economy in that product?
It was always going to happen with the continued increases in tax. Tax needs to be reduced but that wont happen so this will just get worse. Average levy on cigarettes in EU is 3.50. We charged 8 per box of 20. That’s just mental.
@John Duggan: The tax is because of health issues. If you didn’t know smoking is bad and ends up costing the state who have to provide public health care ..
@Alan Kenny: all in taxes and levies are more than €11 on an average €14 box of cigarettes. It’s not just mental, it’s egregious.
@Gavin Lynam: Do you have some figures on what smokers cost the health system, versus what they generate in taxes?
@Gavin Lynam: Obesity causes issues too, so maybe a 400% tax on all take away foods and restaurants then ? Like the way the sugar tax fixed so much.
@Gavin Lynam: i am pretty sure that you believe in fairies and dragons as well.
@Da Dell: And a tax on frozen food/pizzas in supermarkets and any product that contains any trace of unhealthiness. Also put a health levy on driving cause people are too lazy to walk which is costing the taxpayer in health costs.
So much for personal responsibility and personal freedom. These taxes do very little to improve peoples’ health. Irish people constantly think in terms of how much money they could generate but aren’t thinking about the education aspect. Education is the key to everything but we aren’t too fond of that here, clinging on to our traditional leaving cert and not teaching many real world skills or education.
@JusticeForJoe: Money isn’t the issue
@Larsen Cib: Still haven’t grown out of your superhero faze I see ..
@JusticeForJoe: smokers cost the state around 300 million more than they contribute in taxes every year.
@Alan Kenny: an the same will happen with wine an beer ,.
@Fakë Ăvatăř: do you have a source for that?
@Ian Kerrigan.: I compiled the data as part of a project about two years ago, the figure ranges between 3 to 4 hundred million a year going from 2010 to 2018, long and short of it is smoking is a drain on economy.
@Fakë Ăvatăř: utter b0ll0x
@Fakë Ăvatăř: that’s interesting because it’s been reported that smokers give over 30 million beyond what they cost the exchequer. So unless you can provide evidence I’m not going to believe you over economists on the matt Cooper show.
@Fakë Ăvatăř: During that period smokers contributed on average 1,200M each year in combined excise duties and tax. In other words, they paid for all of their own health costs and gave a further €800M for the health of others.
(Figures supplies by the Revenue Commissioners).
Nobody should be suprised… Tax anything that much and its basically an open invite to criminals in the black market…There is other ways but the tories we have in charge aren’t capable of thinking outside the box
Legalise and regulate. If it was legal there’d be none of these criminal enterprises. Oh wait…
@Mattress Dick: Unfortunately the biggest gangsters in the country are the ones regulating this industry, the main crime here is the tax is circa 80% of the purchase price.
@Mattress Dick: Yes you right, better to leave as is, as its easy to get and cheap plus added bonus of having access to nearly all ‘drugs’ from same source. If the Gov got involved they would just make a balls of it.
@Mark Malone: pretty much this.
@Mattress Dick: there you are again. Great support for the cause of legalisation. Dick says legal is better.
Pretending that the tax is for the health system is a joke. Today’s children are much better educated about the dangers and yet during the pandemic there has been an increase of young people smoking
@Ian James Burgess: unfortunately naive , not far thinking people do believe in these fairy tales.
The profits from tobacco smuggling are on par with those from drugs, but the penalties for getting caught are a laugh. Basically a smack on the back of the hand.
Why don’t they follow these drug finds back to make mass arrests. Seizing stuff at the ports is lazy and unimaginative.
They haven’t gone away, you know.
have your say