Coughlan sets out to reassure farmers on nitrates, sugar beet

Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan moved to reassure farmers on the implications of the nitrates regulations, as Fine Gael launched a strong attack on her ministerial performance.

She said she was well aware that many of the comments in recent days and weeks had worried farmers.

"Indeed it is not putting it too strongly to say that they are frightened of the impact of the nitrates regulations. They do not need to be. It is time for the farm organisations, for Teagasc staff, for private advisers and indeed for my own department to bring some balance to the discussion.

"Farmers are not going to be forced out of business left, right and centre. They are not going to be forced to operate at uneconomic levels of fertilisation. They are not going to be hounded under the single payment scheme or tormented with extra inspections."

Fine Gael spokesman Denis Naughten, moving a motion critical of the Minister in private member's time, accused Ms Coughlan of underestimating the implications of the nitrates action plan.

"The core objective behind the nitrates action plan should have been to ensure that the voluntary code of good farming practice, published in 1996 by the then minister Ivan Yates, was converted into legal obligations on the farming community. This would ensure good quality of water and protect our environment."

Mr Naughten said the Government's statement last week on the suspension of part of the nitrates action plan was full of riddles.

"While the Minister for the Environment has now given a commitment to review the phosphate rules, he has given no indication on a review of the nitrates rules, which contravene Teagasc advice to farmers on optimum efficiency."

Calling for clarity on the farm waste management grants, Mr Naughten said Ms Coughlan had announced the introduction of a new scheme last July, without any further detail available from her department.

Mr Naughten accused her of failing to make the case at EU level for the survival of the Irish sugar industry. "She failed to ensure the retention of the Carlow sugar plant until the negotiations were complete, which could have strengthened her hand. Instead she turned her back on Carlow.

"She also failed to impress on the EU Commission that Ireland is in a unique position in that there is only one processing factory and that it was not contributing to the over-production of sugar within the EU."

Ms Coughlan said a decision on the future of beet growing here would be a commercial one by the stakeholders concerned, having regard to the reformed EU sugar regime which would apply from July 1st. "The regime had remained largely unchanged for 40 years, but its reform was inevitable and could no longer be postponed, due to internal and international pressures."

Ireland, she said, had secured an enhanced compensation package. Beet growers would be compensated for up to 64 per cent of the price reduction, in the form of direct payments, which would be worth approximately €123 million to beet growers over the next seven years. The House will vote on the motion tonight.