Derogation farmers who breach the regulations regarding the new fertiliser register will be excluded from the programme for two years, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed.

The Department insisted this week that a hard line will be taken with farmers who do not comply with the database regulations.

In the case of derogation farmers flouting the fertiliser import regulations, the Department stated that such farmers “will be rejected from the nitrates derogation for 2024 and as a result will be ineligible to apply for a nitrates derogation in 2025."

The Department also warned that farmers in schemes such as ACRES could have serious penalties imposed on payments.

Similarly, penalties could be imposed on Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) entitlements.

Sanctions generally ranged from 1% to 5% or 10%, with the penalties for more serious breaches rising from 15% to possibly 100%.

The legislation requires importers of fertiliser - who must be registered Fertiliser Economic Operators - into the State to log such imports on the National Fertiliser Database within 72 hours of their importation.

“Sanctions for failure to notify imports to the National Fertiliser Database is a Class A fine,” the Department stated.

This could cost farmers as much as €5,000; in addition to the penalties imposed on farmers’ direct payments.

The Department said 35 farmers and businesses had registered as Fertiliser Economic Operators. Twenty-six of this 35 were also registered as Fertiliser End Users or farmers.

Up to June 24, the volume of fertiliser imported by these operators was 61,847t.

Barry Larkin of the Acorn Group of independent merchants recently claimed that farmers were importing unregistered fertiliser from Northern Ireland in an effort to side-step the fertiliser database.