The main farming organisations are threatening to withdraw from involvement in any new national agreement because their members will be affected by tough, anti-water pollution measures demanded by the European Commission.
On the face of it, their anti-social stance is outrageous. But the income of thousands of commercial farmers may be reduced. And, last year, they were encouraged by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to believe that concessions would be made on stocking levels and that proposed nitrogen spreading limits for slurry and other fertilisers would be relaxed.
The anti-water pollution proposals will affect intensive beef and dairy farmers and are due to be submitted to the EU Commission by next July. The Government's lackadaisical approach to the issue has been nothing less than a public scandal, in that a nitrogen management plan should have been adopted 13 years ago.
Pressure from the farming community prevented that happening but time - and EU patience - appears to have run out. The European Commission recently took the Government to the European Court of Justice, where it was found to be in breach of its statutory obligations. And the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, threatened to withhold farm support payments amounting to €500 million if measures to prevent water pollution were not put in place.
The action now being prepared by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, designates nitrate-vulnerable zones so that remedial programmes can be undertaken to protect and enhance Irish water quality. This will require the establishment of maximum animal stocking levels; a ban on the spreading of slurry and other fertilisers at certain times of the year; and a limit on the amount that can be spread. Farming organisations have complained their most competitive members will be forced to reduce stocking levels under these rules, while others will have to increase their slurry storage facilities.
Last year, under pressure from the European Commission, Mr Cullen established an Office of Environmental Enforcement, with responsibility to protect the quality of the environment and inland waters. And he warned that those responsible for pollution would be held to account. Any change in that position would make a laughing stock of the new office and send the most dangerous signal to unscrupulous individuals.
Ordinary citizens and the tourist sector are entitled to expect protection from any economic interest that deliberately damages and pollutes the environment. Even in an election year, farmers should not become an exception to that rule.