The farm sector is reeling from a shock move to radically change tack on Ireland’s approach to applying for a new nitrates derogation by adding further conditions to the process.

Six months out from the current derogation expiring, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has said that Brussels demanded that Ireland must prove that the derogation does not negatively impact protected habitats.

As a result, he expects hundreds of “onerous” regional habitat assessments will need to be carried out by his Department.

The minister is seeking an extension of the current derogation beyond December while these ecological reports are set in motion.

“A key part of our ask [is] that everyone that has the derogation would continue to have it beyond the end of this year. Failure to put in this application, failure to address the Habitats Directive means we reach a cliff edge at the end of this year,” he said.

State plans to conduct these assessments at catchment level across the country, rather than farm level, will require European Commission backing.

Water quality trends had previously been the only hurdle referenced in the battle to secure a new derogation. The move comes just one week after the Environmental Protection Agency found that nutrient concentrations in rivers reduced last year.