Farmers participating in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme and who have been unable to comply with the rules on spreading slurry because of the poor weather have had the deadline for doing so extended for the second time in a month.
Under the terms of the first REPS, there is an onus on farmers to spread half the slurry produced over the winter by July 1st and the balance by September 30th.
However, yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, extended the deadline for spreading the first of the slurry to August 31st. This is the second time the deadline has been extended this month.
"I had recognised that the weather conditions would have prevented some REPS farmers from spreading half their slurry by 1st July and for that reason I extended the deadline by a month and I said I would review the position," the Minister said yesterday.
"While the situation has improved in many parts of the country, there are still some farmers who have not been able to meet the extended deadline. For that reason I have agreed to extend the deadline for a further month to August 31st," he said.
Mr Walsh said this dispensation was being granted to farmers who had joined the original REPS but not to those who had joined REPS2, because they had until August 31st to spread all slurry produced during the winter housing period.
He reminded farmers that they have an overriding obligation at all times to avoid pollution.
He added that good farmers had been even more conscious in recent times of the increased risks of inadvertently causing water pollution, and it was obvious they had taken special care to avoid that. This was a fact that deserved to be recognised.
It emerged this week that the Government has agreed to renegotiate the agreement on Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), which had been causing friction between landowners and the authorities across the State.
Almost 14 per cent of the land and marine area of the State - covering bogs, turloughs, bays, estuaries, rivers, heaths, lakes and woodlands - has been designated for conservation to meet EU directives.
However, farm organisations have been fighting the designations in many areas, claiming they took place without any scientific justification.
They also claimed that compensation levels offered for freezing development on designated lands were inadequate and the focus for compensation was too narrow. Negotiations on the scheme and other issues will begin in September.