Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

261 Chapter 10: Environment and Agriculture Water Action Plan 2024 Ireland’s Water Action Plan 2024, which was developed and updated in accordance with the criteria set out in the Water Framework Directive, draws together the programme of measures for agriculture and all the other sectors that are having an impact on water quality. In summary, the key measures for agriculture are: ■ implementing the Nitrates Action Programme ■ developing and implementing an enhanced local authority agricultural inspections programme with oversight from the EPA ■ continuing the LAWPRO and ASSAP approaches to addressing specific water quality issues in an increased number of priority areas for action ■ providing a new funding mechanism for farmers for on-farm measures to protect and restore water quality (the Farming for Water project) ■ implementing the ACRES agri-environmental schemes and the eco-schemes as required under the CAP Strategic Plan ■ Teagasc developing an online web-based tool to deliver farm sustainability plans. It is critical that all these measures are implemented in full. With the significant water quality challenges that remain across a range of pressures, it is very unlikely that the targets for achieving at least good ecological status in all water bodies by 2027 will be met. The Nitrates Action Programme The Nitrates Action Programme, incorporating the Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations (S.I. 113/2022), is the primary instrument in Ireland for managing the impacts of agriculture on water quality. Nationally, the water quality evidence shows that four successive Nitrates Action Programmes have not delivered the desired water quality outcomes. The Teagasc Agricultural Catchments Programme was established in 2009 to assess the effectiveness of the Nitrates Action Programme measures in six demonstration catchments that have intensive monitoring, research and farm advisory programmes in place. With water quality remaining unsatisfactory in four of the six catchments (Mellander et al ., 2022), it is clear that there are still gaps that need to be addressed. Measures have been further strengthened in the fifth Nitrates Action Programme for the period 2022–2025 (DHLGH, 2022). A commitment was made in the fifth Nitrates Action Programme to conduct an interim review of water quality in 2023 and to apply additional measures if specific water quality criteria set out by the Commission (Decision (EU) 2022/696) were not met. The outcome of the assessment was that additional measures are required over much of the country (DAFM, 2023a; EPA, 2023). The additional measures must include a reduction in the maximum allowable loading of organic manure from 250 kg/ha to 220 kg/ha on farms that have a derogation to farm more intensively than advised in the EU Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). The derogation reduction has been in place since 1 January 2024 and further measures are under consideration as part of the interim review. Under the fifth Nitrates Action Programme, the EPA has been given strengthened responsibilities in the oversight of the local authority agriculture inspections regime. A national agricultural inspections programme is being developed and implemented in a phased approach that sets out inspection priorities and expectations with regard to numbers of farms inspected. Inspections will be risk based and targeted and there will be a stronger focus on enforcement and follow-up. A training programme is also being developed. The Teagasc marginal abatement cost curves Teagasc has published, and is continuing to update, MACCs, which quantify, using the best available research, the economic costs and the environmental benefits of a range of mitigation measures for ammonia (Buckley et al ., 2020) and greenhouse gas (Lanigan et al ., 2023) emissions. For ammonia, the key findings are that 80% of the mitigation potential can be achieved by the full implementation of low-emission slurry spreading techniques and by switching to using protected urea. For greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in carbon sequestration through land use management and land use change, changing fertiliser type, improving the genetic breeding of the dairy herd and the use of feed additives are the key actions. Full implementation of these measures will be required to meet the overall targets.