This article is from page 6 of the 2006-11-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
ANGER is growing among Clare farmers over the implementation of the nitrates regulations. A full IFA ban on unannounced Department of Agriculture inspections took effect yesterday, November 27.
There was a heated public meeting hosted by delegates of the Department of Agriculture and Teagasc and attended by more than 200 farmers in Ennis last Thursday.
The meeting was designed to inform Clare farmers on how best to conform to the controversial new regulations, but instead it prompted widespread confusion and anger among the farmers in attendance.
“There are so many areas and it is so complicated that a lot of farmers don’t have a grasp of it. Even some of the people on the stand at the meeting, well, we were not happy with some of the explanations that they gave. They were not able to explain it 100 per cent,” said Clare IFA President, Seamus Murphy.
“You can’t expect farmers to be up to date on something like this when it comes at them from out of the blue. Every farm is different and these rules apply differently from farm to farm. The department should put in a lot more effort to getting the information across to farmers on how this will work.”
Should farmers run into difficulty and fail sections of these on-the-spot tests, they stand to lose on a portion of the Single Farm Payment, which is the lifeblood of many Clare farms.
“This is quite a big deal,” continued Mr Murphy. “This is the only income on a lot of farms. We also feel that when inspectors leave, that farmer should be given a signed receipt on how the inspection went.
“At the moment, you don’t even know how the inspection went or even what areas of your farm have been checked until you receive the letter in the post.
“We don’t know what they are looking for and we don’t like these on-the-spot inspections.”
Last week, the IFA urged its members to refuse access to the farms to nitrate and cross-compliance inspectors who fail to give farmers any notice of inspections.
“We wouldn’t have a problem if they gave us 48 hours’ notice before inspections,” continued Mr Murphy. “There is a lot of concern and fear of the unknown.”