Farm organisations were warned yesterday that failure by the Government to submit a nitrates plan could result in their €1.7 billion direct payments being endangered.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, was speaking at the launch of the annual review and outlook for 2003-2004 where he outlined the difficulties which could arise as a result of the nitrates directive.
Mr Walsh urged that those directly involved, his own Department, the Department of the Environment, Teagasc and the social partners, sit down together to sort the issue out.
"This matter has only become a political issue in the last week or so and I cannot reason why because it has been around since 1991," he said.
Ireland has been convicted by the European Court of having failed to submit an action plan to Brussels to cut back on the use of organic fertilisers, Mr Walsh said.
"We must immediately submit an action plan and our direct payments of €1.7 billion could be endangered," he said.
Due to the court's ruling, the action plan had to specify a fertiliser limit of 175 kg a hectare, and there was no way around that, he said.
"However, we have had indications from Brussels they would treat a derogation request from us with sympathy, and we should submit both of these together."
We should seek a derogation of a limit of 250 kg a hectare as agreed in the Partnership agreement, he said. What was needed now was a united push based on proper scientific evidence, he added. Ireland would have until December to negotiate the derogation and that gave us time to get the issue sorted out.
Less than 10,000 farmers would be affected at the 175 kg a hectare limit. While acknowledging that it was a serious matter, he said most Irish farmers could live with the limit until the derogation was put in place.
In his review Mr Walsh said that last year had been a good one for farmers especially in the beef sector. There was a 5 per cent rise in aggregate farm income which reached €2.6 billion.
He said there was a continuing drift towards part-time farming with 42 per cent of Irish farmers operating part time compared to the European average of 30 per cent. The outlook for the coming year was favourable with the overall economy expected to expand by 3.3 per cent, with positive developments in agricultural markets.
There had been a very good outcome from the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in the Luxembourg agreement and Ireland had negotiated a good deal for farmers who had opted for decoupling.
The direct payments coming to farmers in a single payment next year would account for 63 per cent of aggregate farm income. Last year 39 per cent of the payments went to the top 20 per cent of farmers and 9 per cent to the bottom 20 per cent.
He said 30 per cent of Irish farmers no longer received a cheque but an electronic transfer through the e-commerce system.