Important lessons still to be learned on Nitrates Directive.

(From Irish Independent)

HAVING completed four large public information meetings along with Department of Agriculture officials on the implications of the Nitrates Directive, I believe there are important lessons to be learned on both sides.

These were not comfortable meetings, either for those at the top table or for the audience. Some people expressed anger but the more common emotions were fear and confusion.

Cross-compliance has been around for quite a while. Many of the Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) - including SMR 4, the nitrates SMR - go back to EU Directives in the 1980s and early 1990s and would have to be implemented with or …