Outgoing ministerial colleagues Pippa Hackett and Martin Heydon clashed over the role politics will have to play in the retention of Ireland’s nitrates derogation beyond 2025 during the Irish Farmers Journal live general election debate on Thursday.
The Green Party’s Pippa Hackett claimed it would be doing farmers a “disservice” to maintain that political wranglings will get the next derogation application process greenlighted if water quality does not improve.
This position was countered by Fine Gael’s Martin Heydon, who insisted that, while water quality results feed into the renewal process, EU politics will have a role to play in the derogation debate.
Hackett said: “I think it is a massive challenge in whatever amount of time we might get. This isn’t a political decision, unfortunately, we can try and extend out some timelines, we might get another year to show the changes and there are massive changes going on on farms, I fully accept that."
“But the [European] Commission will say, you have had your derogation for 15 or 20 years now, it is only in the last year and a half, two years, that you have taken it seriously.
Heydon claimed that Fine Gael’s affiliation to the European Peoples Party which “will matter” and allow his party to apply “political pressure across Europe” to support Irelands derogation.
Hackett countered that: “Politics will not change it, it’s a law and if you are caught speeding, you are over the limits and that’s it. There is no political interference."
Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue said that retaining the derogation will involve action at farm-level to improve water quality, as well as political action to garner support needed to get the country’s application for a renewed derogation passed.
“I full believe we can do it, we can retain it. It is crucial not just to our dairy sector, but to all of our sectors and it will be absolutely key that it is something the next government leads out on because 2025 will be the year that sees the negotiation on it," he added.
Derogation not permanent fixture
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture Martin Kenny expressed support for efforts to keep the derogation in place for Irish farmers, but suggested that being permitted to exceed 170kg organic N/ha is not something that will be allowed to continue indefinitely.
“We need absolutely to put all the work and all the investment in to ensure that we get our water quality to the highest possible standard and we can do that, I believe, with the derogation in place, we can keep it as long as possible,” Kenny said.
“We also need to face it at some point or other, we are going to come to a situation where we are going to have a problem with this issue.”
These comments spurred a response from Martin Heydon, who said that he “absolutely disagreed” with Sinn Féin’s position on a derogation D-Day looming for Ireland.
“We have seen this flip flopping from Sinn Féin in terms of their position and half-heartedly talking about trying to keep it,” the Kildare South candidate said.
“Fine Gael is the party that is steadfast with the derogation and I believe we can turn the corner on water quality the same way as we had done on emissions over the past few years.”
Heydon stated that his party leader Simon Harris’s commitment to establish a Cabinet committee on retaining the nitrates derogation will act as a counterweight to farmers having been “pilloried and vilified” on water quality.
Players in other sectors that impact on water quality, such as Irish Water, local authorities and representatives of waste water treatment systems, should be summoned to this committee, he added.
Independent Ireland’s Eddie Punch used his speaking time on the derogation to state that more funding is needed to assist farmer investment in slurry storage facilities, also calling out the forestry and waste water treatment sectors to better address their role in water quality issues.
“There is a real sense among farmers that government support for the derogation was too little too late this last time round and that has to change because farmers have put tremendous effort in to make huge changes to their farming system at more cost to themselves,” Punch added.
The Irish Farmers Journal live election debate between can be watched in full here.
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