IRELAND-MORE COSTS FOR PIG FARMERS.
A proposed redrafting of an EU directive on pollution could end up costing pig farmers up to €25,000 each, it is claimed.
The IFA says that although the EU Parliament’s vote on the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) last Wednesday was positive for Irish poultry farmers, pig farmers could be faced with increased bureaucracy and costs.
Pigs committee chairman Tim Cullinane says amendments to the directive would increase the incidence of double regulation on farmers in areas that were already covered by the nitrates and water framework directives. Ireland East MEP Mairead McGuinness warned that the proposed redrafting could result in pig producers facing an extra €25,000 per permit application.
She explained that recasting of legislation relating to pollution control in major industrial installation was bringing seven separate pieces of legislation into one text.
"However, in the process, the EU Commission has decided to introduce changes to the licensing of large pig farms, which would add additional costs and bureaucracy," she said.
Ms McGuinness said this was, in effect, a double layer of regulation on pig production.
She said that while MEPs had rejected efforts to bring in further restrictions on the pig and poultry sectors, the proposal as it stood was still unfavourable for pig production and had to be amended in the second reading.