A candidate for the upcoming European elections in June has claimed that farmers are being “treated unfairly” on the issue of water quality.
Ciaran Mullooly, who is running in the Midlands–North-West constituency for the new Independent Ireland party, said that he “recognises the challenges” faced by farmers in terms of some environmental rules.
“Farmers are experiencing difficulties with climate change regulations coming from Europe and in relation to [nitrates] derogation and water quality issues,” Mullooly said.
“These are of major significance and will have a huge impact on the economic well-being of both farmers and rural communities across the country.
“While nobody denies that water quality is essential for everyone, and should be a priority, the majority of the scrutiny for water quality falls on to the agriculture sector. It is the sector that comes in for the most criticism, and this is very frustrating for farmers,” he added.
Mullooly said that there were several other contributors to water quality issues in Ireland which do not appear to come in for the same level of scrutiny.
“Local authority sewage treatment works, for example, contribute millions of gallons of treated water, but these were never designed for the volumes going through them with the increase in population of the towns they serve, and they are not able to cope,” he said.
“It is widely believed that many of these may be discharging large quantities of untreated, or incorrectly treated, sewage or water into the countryside. This is going to have a major impact on everyone.
“When the water is discharged from these sewage treatment plants, it is monitored at rivers and watercourses. If it fails to meet the required standard, the spotlight immediately comes back on farmers. This is unfair and must be addressed,” according to Mullooly.
Apart from local authorities, the election candidate also cited industry as a source of pollution.
“In both of these cases, there is a corporate body responsible. They have staff and management in abundance. Yet they aren’t always successful in their management of discharge from their plants, and these plants haven’t been upgraded to meet new demand,” he said.
“In the case of agriculture, most farmers are sole traders. It is down to an individual farmer. Yet when it comes to blame, the farmer is the easy target. When there is a problem, everyone looks to farmers, and the penalties are levied on them.”
Mullooly called for farmers to be given “time and technology” to improve their practices, saying they “cannot and should not be blamed for something they are not responsible for”.