The Government is planning to delay the introduction of a number of its proposed anti-pollution measures for farmers by a further five years under a set of revised proposals to be submitted to the European Commission.
The five-year delay is seen as a significant concession in relation to an EU nitrates directive, and follows intensive lobbying by farming groups. However some of the proposed changes announced yesterday will lead to a slight tightening in some of the pollution limits.
The proposals, announced by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, allow for a five-year "transition period" for phosphorus limits which impact on pig, poultry and mushroom producers.
Last year the Government agreed a set of limits on the amount of slurry and fertiliser farmers are allowed to spread on their land through setting limits on nitrogen and phosphorus, the two principal causes of water pollution in Ireland.
The limits are required under the EU nitrates directive, a law passed in 1991 which aim to protect rivers and lakes from pollution.
The European Court of Justice has already found Ireland in breach of the directive, and the Government narrowly avoided heavy fines by agreeing an action plan with the European Commission, which was passed into law in Ireland.
However this year Mr Roche announced that his officials would be reviewing the plan following heavy lobbying by pig and poultry producers who claimed the regulations relating to phosphorus were too severe.
Dairy and beef farmers also claimed they would face serious problems if the new regulations were enforced.
The State agricultural advisory service Teagasc also became embroiled in the controversy after it said that the regulations did not fully reflect its advice. It then produced new scientific advice which it forwarded to the Department of the Environment.
Since February officials at the department have been in discussions with Teagasc, farming groups, the European Commission and the Department of Agriculture on drawing up revised guidelines.
The guidelines were finalised yesterday and have been sent to the European Commission.
They cannot be implemented without the commission's agreement.
Yesterday officials from the Department of the Environment briefed farm leaders in meetings at the Custom House in Dublin.
The main concession is a proposal that phosphorus limits will not be applied to pig, poultry and mushroom farmers until January 1st 2011, 20 years after the directive was supposed to have come into force. Manure from these activities is rich in phosphorous and the new limits would have effectively amounted to a ban on them spreading slurry.
Yesterday Mr Roche defended the new proposals as being realistic. He said they ensured "that the overriding need for adequate protection of water quality would not be undermined".
The other major change is a simplification of rules relating to animal numbers which will effectively increase the amount of animal manure and artificial fertilisers farmers are allowed to spread on most Irish grassland.
The amount of nitrogen that can be spread on tillage land has also been increased.
The Department of the Environment is also suggesting changes to limits on phosphorus levels.
This will allow an increase in the levels of phosphorus on some lands, but will also decrease the maximum amount of phosphorus levels allowed on Irish land.