Boosting Water Quality: Urgent Call for 60% Slurry Storage Grant in Budget 2024
In the lead-up to Budget 2024, Fianna Fáil TD and Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Jackie Cahill, has made a compelling plea for an ‘unconditional’ 60% grant to be allocated towards slurry storage.
This move, according to Cahill, is instrumental in advancing the government’s mission to enhance water quality throughout the nation.
With the impending reduction in nitrates derogation, affecting numerous farmers by lowering the organic N threshold from 250kg per hectare to 220 kgN/ha, Cahill emphasises the critical need for infrastructural support to facilitate this transition.
“We need to concentrate on maintaining the 220kg of organic N and we need to be able to go back to Brussels and show that water quality is improving.
“One way to ensure water quality improves is to have enough slurry storage. At this time of year farmers are technically allowed to spread slurry yet the ground is just too saturated but if farmers are able to hold it until more optimal conditions then that just makes common sense.
“To do that they need to have enough storage in place to be able to make the decision to spread slurry when it is most optimal to do so,” stated Deputy Cahill.
In the context of Budget 2024, Cahill advocates for the incorporation of an “incentive grant system” specifically designed for slurry storage, distinct from the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) for maximal impact.
“It has got to be outside the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) to have a meaningful impact – it has got to be a separate fund.
“We know from previous schemes that this will work – we’ve seen in the past that slurry storage schemes have helped to improve water quality so it is in all our interests that slurry storage is increased,” added Deputy Cahill.
Furthermore, he underscores a palpable eagerness among farmers to invest in expanded storage facilities.
“When you spread the slurry at the right time you get the greatest benefits from the nutrients and given the cost of chemical fertilizer that delivers a great economic benefit for farmers as well.
“We need to fully utilise our slurry and if we can improve water quality by doing this, then it is of benefit to everyone that it is included in Budget 2024,” asserted the Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary.
In discussions with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, Cahill, along with Senator Tim Lombard, both of whom are farming under derogation, have advocated for the imperative of bolstering slurry storage.
“Myself and Senator Tim Lombard are the only two members of the Oireachtas that are farming in derogation so we fully know the implications of it and the financial hardship that it is going to bring and I believe the minister has listened to me on derogation,” concluded Deputy Cahill.
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