"Banging the table” at negotiations with the European Commission will not keep Ireland's nitrates derogation beyond 2024, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said.

Instead, the country must reverse declining water quality trends and ensure compliance with EU water quality rules, the Minister stated on Thursday.

“It is wrong for anyone to be complacent or believe it is simply about the Government banging the table enough in order that we will continue to get it,” Minister McConalogue told a Dáil debate on nitrates.

“The reality is we have a challenge in that we have not delivered over the past 10 years in relation to improving water quality or in relation to meeting the targets under the nitrates directive.

“That has put us in a challenging situation at the moment. We now have to work together to make sure we reverse those trends. We will work together to make sure of that.

“The reality is that if we do not, then come 2024 and 2025, securing the derogation again will become a big challenge.”

More time sought

Minister McConalogue told TDs that there is no certainty that the Commission will give more time for new measures to take effect before a decision is made on whether the maximum derogation stocking rate will be cut from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha.

“In March, I committed to engaging with the European Commission to seek flexibility regarding their conditionality around the two-year water quality review,” he said.

“This engagement has taken place and will continue. However, there is no guarantee that the Commission will agree to reopening its decision.”

He also said that the Environmental Protection Agency maps suggesting that 4.4m hectares of land falls into the 220kg N/ha zone are not necessarily the final maps which become law from 2024.