Martin Cullen EU Directive 'must be implemented'
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, has said that everybody must now accept that the European nitrates directive has to be implemented. He said all interested parties, especially farm organisations, must now make progress collectively.
He was commenting after Ireland was found guilty by the European Court of Justice today, of failing to implement the EU's Nitrates Directive.
The EU directive aims to improve the quality of drinking water. It limits the amount of fertiliser that can be spread on land. It also restricts the time of year when it can be spread, and outlines specific storage requirements.
The Court judgement found against Ireland on three grounds: the failure to identify nitrate vulnerable zones; the failure to adopt an action programme with measures to combat pollution by nitrates and the monitoring of waters.
At its recent AGM, the IFA rejected the most recent proposals saying they were unnecessary and too expensive.
Meanwhile, the Green MEP Patricia McKenna said the Irish Farmers Association must stop trying to block measures to improve the quality of Irish drinking water.
Ms McKenna said it is about time the IFA stopped trying to block the Government on this very necessary piece of environmental legislation. She said if we do not properly comply with the Court's judgement Ireland will face daily fines. She added that it would not be the taxpayer who would incur the costs.
She said farmers have had 13 years to get the pollution controls in place to deal with the Nitrates Directive. But they are still seriously unprepared and recently the IFA has been lobbying the Government to make significant changes in its plans to finally implement this directive.
