Absence of Amendments in New Industrial Directive Disappointing

IFA Deputy President Alice Doyle said the refusal of the European Parliament to consider any amendments to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is very disappointing.

“MEPs appear to have adopted a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and were unwilling to consider that farming systems are not the same across Member States,” Alice Doyle said in Strasbourg.

In advance of the vote, Alice Doyle met Irish MEPs and reinforced the family farm structure that exists in Ireland.

“It’s a shame that the vote to consider amendments was defeated by a narrow margin. A different outcome would have kept smaller units outside the scope of what was proposed in the IED,” she said.

The IFA Deputy President said the next CAP has to take a far more nuanced approach in its deliberations, otherwise it will risk alienating a large number of farm families.

“Farms are already heavily regulated and they are not ‘industrial’ units. We have a pasture-based system in this country. This was driven by ideology, not science, and it will mean a costly licensing regime on farming.”

An IFA delegation in Brussels last month made it clear that without any amendment the IED would bring very small pig and poultry units into a scenario where they needed a full EPA licence.

Currently pig farms with more than 275 sows integrated and layer farmers with more than 40,000 birds require a licence. The new requirement proposed in the IED will mean that pig farmers with 94 sows and layer farms with 21,000 birds would require a licence under the same Directive as a chemical factory.