Minister warns on water pollution

Informed and responsible management of farm nutrients, especially phosphate, must play a central role in attempts to reduce water pollution arising from farming, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has warned.

Water quality had become so important that it now had a critical bearing on "our fisheries, our tourism and our vital image as a clean, green producer of food", he told the Teagasc conference.

He added: "Many farmers are applying too much phosphorous. Nationally, it is estimated to be about £25 million of unnecessary expenditure every year. Therefore, as good financial managers of their own business, it is crucially in the farmer's own interest that his phosphate needs are properly assessed." The Rural Environmental Protection Scheme would play a major role in reducing damage to water from agricultural sources. Overuse of phosphate was a time-bomb in the Irish environmental context, said Environmental Protection Agency director Ms Marie Sherwood. Her advice to anyone responsible for phosphate occurring in water was: "Ask not where other sectors are discharging phosphate into water, but rather assess what phosphate your own sector is discharging and how it can be reduced. Stop throwing brick-bats." The revised Teagasc recommendations aimed at curbing phosphate use were "not an attempt to ask farmers to use phosphate levels that do not give an economic yield".