For how much longer will we tolerate the actions of a Government that is threatening our health and making a holy show of us internationally? This week's ruling by the European Court of Justice on Ireland's flagrant breaches of environmental laws on waste disposal is just the latest in a long line of public humiliations that we have brought upon ourselves.
Take for instance the European Commission's efforts to force the Government to ensure we are not poisoned by our own drinking water. It is, of course, extraordinary that such pressure should have to come from outside the State. It is even more remarkable that it has been fought tooth and nail by successive governments over the past 14 years.
The nitrates directive has over the years become clouded in all kinds of jargon, and has come to be interpreted as a measure that primarily concerns the agricultural sector. Debate is polarised around derogations from one level of nitrate per kilogram per hectare to another, from nitrate spreading time limits to slurry storage periods. At this point, the eyes of most of us non-farming types glaze over.
In the meantime, our drinking water, our lakes and our rivers continue to be polluted, as the Government thumbs its nose at the EU, the one agency that is trying to save us from our own disinterest. Yet the directive is not the private business of the farming sector - it is a fundamentally important mechanism to ensure the health of every man, woman and child.
Nitrates are one of the nutrients used to fertilise crops and are found in farm waste, principally manure. Every time a farmer spreads slurry on his or her land, nitrates (and other potentially lethal nutrients such as phosphorus) can leach off into ground and surface water.
From there they can contaminate drinking water, leading to a variety of severe illnesses, including certain cancers. They also poison rivers, lakes and estuaries by producing toxic algal blooms, where the water takes on a thick, soup-like consistency. This process is called eutrophication - it also has serious implications for both human and animal health.
In Ireland the Environmental Protection Agency is very clear about the problems we face from this kind of pollution. Seventy per cent of our drinking water comes from lakes and rivers, over one-third of which are polluted, according to the EPA. High levels of nitrates have been found in drinking water supplies in 13 counties.
Few local authorities are using the powers available to them under the Water Pollution Act to control agricultural activity, which remains the single largest cause of contamination. Although some areas have improved, the EPA emphasises the need for urgent action on pollution of water caused particularly by farm nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrates.
And yet for the past 14 years, successive governments have simply ignored the EU's nitrates directive, whose only purpose is to control the contamination of our water by limiting the amount of slurry that farmers can spread on their land. Not even the most basic initial requirements have been met. In this regard, Ireland stands alone, pariah-like, the only EU country not to have protected its citizens by implementing the directive.
Put simply, what has happened is that the Irish Government has placed a higher value on farm profit margins than on public health.
The Irish Farmers' Association has consistently campaigned against the directive, saying that it would put thousands of farmers out of business, using scare tactics to mobilise all farmers to oppose curbs on their slurry-spreading activities.
However, the reality is that, according to Teagasc, the vast majority of Irish farmers do not exceed the nitrate limits of 170kg per hectare set by the EU. The small percentage affected are the largest and richest farmers in the country, those who have traditionally dominated the IFA, and those who pollute more and consequently have most to lose from environmental controls. But even for them the Government makes available generous grant schemes for the construction of the necessary additional slurry storage capacity.
It is abundantly clear that moral arguments for the greater good of the population carry little weight with the Government on this issue. Last year's devastating European Court of Justice ruling found against Ireland on every count of breaching the nitrates directive, but has had little impact. The Government blithely continues to argue its entitlement to a derogation that will permit large farmers a much higher maximum level of nitrate application on their land.
It is unfortunate from a public health perspective that the EU's patience with such blatant disregard for the law should appear so endless. It has repeatedly threatened to withdraw farm payments and impose daily fines until such time as the directive is fully implemented. It is perhaps only then that the Government may finally be forced to choose between the IFA and the rights of the community to a clean environment, unpolluted lakes, and non-toxic drinking water.