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EU Directives.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2004

Tuesday, 5 October 2004

Ceisteanna (328)

Willie Penrose

Ceist:

447 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the timescale for the finalisation of the draft national action programme under the nitrates directive; if, with regard to page 13 of the said draft, consideration will be given to amend the assertion made therein, that under no circumstances may nitrate be applied to cereal or tillage crops during the autumn and winter period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23341/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Council Directive 91/676/EEC, commonly known as the nitrates directive, has been implemented in Ireland by way of extensive monitoring of nitrate levels in waters, the assessment of the tropic status of waters, the development and dissemination in 1996 of a code of good agricultural practice to protect waters from pollution by nitrates and a range of other measures which operate to protect water quality from pollution by agricultural sources.

These other measures include the provision of funding under schemes administered by the Department of Agriculture and Food, DAF, such as the control of farmyard pollution scheme, the rural environment protection scheme and the farm waste management scheme to support expenditure by farmers in meeting measures for pollution control and environmental protection standards. They also include bye-laws made by local authorities under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts, a wide range of implementation and enforcement actions taken by local authorities under those Acts, the progressive extension of the integrated pollution control licensing system operated by the EPA to apply to a wider range of intensive agricultural activities and the introduction of requirements for compliance with good farming practice in the context of EU-funded direct payments to farmers under agri-assistance schemes administered by the DAF. Under the single farm payment scheme, which will replace a number of existing direct payment schemes from January 2005, farmers will be required to comply with a number of EU legislative provisions including the nitrates directive.

Extensive discussions with the main farming organisations and other interests have taken place since December 2001 as to the further implementation of the nitrates directive. In February 2002, my Department issued an information paper on good agricultural practice and protection of the environment which set out the background issues and the preferred approach of applying an action programme to all areas rather than to designated vulnerable zones. Consistent with the approach set out in the paper, the European Communities (Protection of Waters Against Pollution from Agricultural Sources) Regulations 2003 identified the whole territory of Ireland as the area to which an action programme will be developed and applied for the purposes of the nitrates directive.

A draft national action programme for further implementation of the directive was prepared by my Department, jointly with DAF and in consultation with Teagasc, and was issued for consultation on 19 December 2003. Some 70 submissions were received from interested parties and a revised draft was prepared having regard to the submissions received. The revised draft was made available on 9 July 2004 to interested parties in a second round of consultation. An independent adviser was appointed to consider the comments received and report with recommendations regarding the provisions of the draft programme.

I understand 50 submissions have been received and I hope to receive the report and recommendations of the independent adviser shortly. The draft action programme will then be revised as necessary and submitted to the European Commission. However, it would be inappropriate for me to indicate whether or not any particular amendment might be made to the draft action programme pending receipt of the independent adviser's report. The action programme will be implemented on a phased basis with effect from 1 January 2005 and will operate for a period of four years.

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