Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that despite his confidence that the derogation will hold at 220kg N/ha, no assurance can be given to farmers who want to invest in extra slurry storage on that basis.

This was prompted by a comment from the floor at the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) AGM on Thursday 7 March from an adviser who said that farmers are fearful that if they invest now and the derogation drops, the extra storage will no longer be needed and a huge cost will be incurred.

Minister McConalogue acknowledged the impact that the drop in the derogation from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha has had on farmers' confidence to invest.

'Challenge'

"The challenge is that we can't give an absolute assurance, because the derogation is something we apply for and have to secure, so we can't be 100% certain.

"All we can do is make sure we make every action that's going to be required to make sure that we do keep that 220kg N/ha.

"I'm confident we can do that, but you can't give anybody 100% assurance in terms of investment decisions right now and that is a challenge," he said.

Farmers, he said, need to have sufficient storage for their needs, because otherwise they won't be in a position to "do the right things" in terms of water quality.

"You need to have enough storage to bring you through the closed season. If not, people are going to find themselves in situations where they are pressured into considering bad practices," he said.