Farming for Water: River Slaney Project

Thomas Ryan, Head of Agri-Sustainability with Tirlán discusses the River Slaney water quality project and the collaboration taking place to get results.

Aidan Brennan

5 February 2025

Tirlán suppliers, Alan and Cheryl Poole showcase the measures they have taken on the farm to enhance water quality. They are pictured with Tirlan chair John Murphy and representatives of the European Commission during a visit to the farm last September.

A stand-out policy issue for Ireland’s farming sector is water quality improvement and protection and the future of the Nitrates Derogation The Derogation is crucial to the viability and success of Ireland’s grass-based dairy farming model. The dairy sector generates a direct output of €7.0bn, which through economic multipliers produces €17.6bn in total output in the Irish economy.

A stand-out policy issue for Ireland’s farming sector is water quality improvement and protection and the future of the Nitrates Derogation

The Derogation is crucial to the viability and success of Ireland’s grass-based dairy farming model. The dairy sector generates a direct output of €7.0bn, which through economic multipliers produces €17.6bn in total output in the Irish economy.

This creates €4.3bn in Gross Value Added. The dairy sector also supports a total of nearly 54,000 FTE jobs across the economy.

The Irish dairy sector is committed to the sustainable development of the sector through payments for on-farm sustainability actions as part of the price milk producers receive and investment in building sustainability knowledge capacity, water quality advisory and knowledge transfer.

Slaney Project

The Farming for Water: River Slaney Project is a an example of a community-based and river catchment-focused project implemented by the sector.

This collaborative project brings together expertise from Teagasc, Tirlán the Local Authorities Water Programme (LAWPRO) and accounting and advisory specialists IFAC to help enhance water quality in the River Slaney.

The Slaney Catchment was selected as it was identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a ‘Catchment of Concern’, with further scientific analysis by LAWPRO identifying the most challenged sub-catchments with the highest risk of nutrient loss from an agricultural perspective.

These sub-catchments are the key focus of the work programme in the Slaney Catchment. However, the overall ambition for the Slaney Project is that it will be considered an exemplar of best practice, which can be scaled and replicated elsewhere.

To support the professional delivery of this project Tirlán has increased its water advisory team to 10 highly trained water quality advisors. These experts provide a Farm Support Service which is aligned with Teagasc’s Better Farming for Water campaign and is focused on impactful actions to address on-farm water quality and wider sustainability challenges.

Working together with our suppliers, we believe that we can make a difference.

In 2024, Tirlán Co-op farm family suppliers commenced participation in the Farming for Water: River Slaney Project. These farmers included Alan and Cheryl Poole from Co Wexford who had a Farm Support Service (FSS) report completed for their farm.

The FSS report (see summary below) sets out the current status of their farm and areas for further development regarding slurry storage, nutrient use efficiency, milk solids, carbon footprint, space for nature and susceptible water quality critical source areas on their farm.

EIP

Following the completion of the FSS Report, Tirlán has supported Poole’s to apply for funding from the new Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP) to support the implementation of a number of actions on their farm, including the development of a rainwater management plan for the farm, participation in upskilling courses, developing a nitrogen score for the farm, management of critical source areas on the farm and supporting the planting of nitrogen-fixing multi-species swards.

During 2025, the Farm Support Service will be expanded to support farm family suppliers in the most challenged Slaney Sub-Catchments and the wider Tirlán milk supply region.

This activity will be supported by on-going Co-op-wide Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP) engagements in ‘Priority Areas for Action’ and submission of EIP applications.

Since 2018 Tirlán has had over 2,000 on-farm water quality engagement and since the 2024 launch of the Farming for Water EIP, submitted almost €1 million worth of funding applications for on-farm water quality protection measures by our farm family suppliers.

Engagement

Tirlán Co-op Members like so many of the farming community are working closely with their Co-op’s, State Agencies and Agri-Consultants and are actively engaged in taking the necessary actions to address water quality challenges and support the retention of the nitrates derogation.

This is evident in the over €300 million national investment by farmers and the State in two important actions, the use of low emissions slurry spreading equipment and investment in additional slurry storage.

In addition to this, in Tirlán we can also see this willingness to do the right thing on-farm, through the participation in the Sustainability Action Payment, Sustainable Farming Academy, Twenty 20 Beef Club, FarmGen, Milk Solids Tracker programme and Future Farm partnership with Teagasc.

This collaboration to address water quality challenges is paying dividends, with a December 2024 EPA water quality report stating that “nitrogen concentrations in waters nationally have reduced in the first half of 2024 relative to other years, and that they are at the lowest they have been since 2016.”

Together through engagement, investment and activity, we are making a difference in addressing the water quality challenge, which will support the retention of Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation this year.