IFA says Varadkar will invite EU Commissioner to Ireland over nitrates cut

The Irish Farmers’ Association says it has received assurances from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that he will invite the EU Environment Commissioner to Ireland following a proposed cut to the nitrates derogation limit in the country.

Earlier, a number of farmers protested outside the Fine Gael parliamentary party think-in over a range of issues, including the EU cut in Ireland’s nitrates derogation limit and the plan to delay payments to farmers in 2023.

The planned limit is to reduce to 220kg of organic nitrogen per hectare.

Asked about the protest, Mr Varadkar said: “I don’t think the dialogue that we’ve had in recent times has really been working, I think that needs to change.

“I’d like there to be a new partnership, the likes of which we have, for example, with the trade union, and the business groups where we sit down and we try and manage change in the interest of farmers, rather than trying to make out these changes aren’t going to happen or they can be stopped when we all know they can’t.”

IFA president Timm Culllinan said the group then held a positive meeting with Mr Varadkar, along with Ministers Simon Coveney and Martin Heydon as well as Colm Markey MEP, on the margins of the event at the Limerick Strand Hotel.

The IFA said the Taoiseach agreed to write to EU Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius for a meeting in Ireland involving Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and a delegation from the sector – or for the Commissioner to meet with sector representatives in Brussels.

Mr Cullinan said: “The Taoiseach was clear he understood the massive impact that any cut in the nitrates derogation limit would have on Irish farmers and the wider sector.”

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, said the meeting would be a “useful next step”.

“First of all, I think we had a very good meeting with the IFA leadership today, it was at least an hour and we went through a range of things,” he said.

“Obviously the thing we spoke most about was the proposed changes to the nitrous derogation that Ireland currently has, and the impact that that’s having on thousands of farmers across the country potentially, and the impact that it has outside of those farmers that are operating under derogation given the impact it’s having on the price of land from from a renter perspective.

“So the main ask of the IFA leadership was of the Taoiseach to invite the commissioner to Ireland so he can see for himself the kind of farming that we have here and the impact that the proposed changes may have, so that the IFA can put to, the kind of flexibilities that they’ve been looking for and so on.

“And I don’t think that was an unreasonable request. I think it’s an obvious next step. And I hope that the commissioner will respond positively to that request, when he gets it from the Taoiseach.”