Throwing out the baby

While the organisation’s underlying intent is securing the abolition of the Nitrates Derogation, the end result, if its legal proceedings were to be successful, would be a major diminution in oversight of nitrates usage. By securing the abolition of the NAP as is An Taisce’s legal approach, the result, according to legal representatives of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), one of the notice parties involved, would be a legal vacuum and a lower level of protection against pollution caused by nitrates. By circuitously seeking to secure the end of the Nitrates Derogation in its entirety, An Taisce could, if successful, end up throwing out not only the baby and the bathwater, but the entire environmental protection bath as well. This is a dangerous throw of the legal dice by the NGO and could make what it perceives to be a bad situation worse. Not only that, but it could also leave the State open to EU-imposed fines if Ireland is stripped of its nitrates controls structures. From an economic perspective, the IFA’s Tadhg Buckley estimates that abolition of the derogation would cost milk producers in excess of €130m, annually. That economic impact, however, is unlikely to sway legal decisions, which will be based solely on the view that High Court Justice Richard Humphreys takes of An Taisce’s judicial review application in regard to the effectiveness or otherwise of the NAP.