ICMSA say meeting with EU Commissioner on Nitrates was ‘useful’ and onus now on Govt to support measures aimed at water quality stabilisation.

The President of ICMSA, Pat McCormack, said that today’s meeting with EU Environmental Commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevicius, on the Nitrates issue was useful and had clarified several questions. Chief amongst those clarifications was the Commissioner’s concession that if water quality stabilised then Ireland could keep its Derogation. Mr. McCormack said that he had no doubt whatsoever that the incidence of water problems rightly or wrongly attributed to farming would fall – he said that trend was already apparent and would continue. A more pressing issue was what he described as the State’s hopeless position on deteriorating water quality caused by its own inaction and indifference. The ICMSA President said that he recent publication of untreated discharges at multiple locations all under the direct supervision of agencies of the State was as scandalous as it was revealing.

Ends     23 November 2023  

Pat McCormack, 087-7608958

President, ICMSA.

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office