The Department of Agriculture has announced plans to radically alter the way the State goes about seeking another nitrates derogation, with just six months left before the country’s current derogation expires.

The Department stated that the European Commission wants Ireland to show that granting further derogations will not negatively impact on Natura 2000 sites – in a move that significantly increases the burden of evidence Ireland must present when making its case.

Doing so will require the Habitats Directive’s appropriate assessment procedure to be carried out across all catchments or sub-catchments in the country, with there being 46 catchments in the country averaging 150,000ha and 583 sub-catchments averaging 12,000ha.

The majority of these have some farmers operating under derogation, meaning that the Department expects to have to submit potentially hundreds of appropriate assessments before its application for another nitrates derogation is even considered by Brussels.

Protected sites

Natura 2000 sites are designated as protected areas under EU law, covering land and waterways.

Key rivers across the country are designated under the Habitats Directive, as are many estuaries and other coastal waters these rivers flow into.

Central to the change of tack is a European Court of Justice ruling on the Netherlands’ nitrates policy that classed livestock grazing and fertiliser application as being a ‘project’ for the purposes of appropriate assessment under the Habitats Directive.

The ruling marked the beginning of the end for the Netherlands’ nitrates derogation, although the Netherlands operates at a much higher farming intensity than Ireland and sees far less livestock grazing on pasture.

The appropriate assessment procedure screens out projects deemed likely to have a significant effect on protected areas to undergo further detailed impact assessments based on the best available scientific evidence and methods.

Additional measures may be included into project plans to mitigate potential risks to get it across the line for approval, which opens the door to fresh water quality measures and requirements differing by area, should the derogation be deemed to pose differing risks to different habitat types.

The GPS tracking of slurry exports, increased slurry and soiled water tank storage requirements, a national feed database and limiting nutrient application on the grazing platform have all been floated at Department level as potential regulatory measures to add to existing farm nitrates rules from next year onwards.

Farm buildings hit

The new approach could also hit farmers’ own building and development plans by swallowing a lot of the available ecologists up, Aidan Kelly of Aidan Kelly Agri Planning and Design told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“There is a lot of county councils looking for reports as standard for farm buildings and development planning applications now,” Kelly said.

“It adds between €2,500 to €4,000 to the cost of a project and six or eight weeks to the planning process. If the Department turns around and takes 20 or 30 ecologists out of the loop, it will add to these costs and to the delays.”