Farmers treated unfairly over water, says Mullooly

European election candidate, Ciaran Mullooly, has said farmers are being treated unfairly regarding water quality regulations. 

The former RTÉ journalist said that individual farmers have become ‘an easy target’ for penalties and levies imposed for insufficient water quality.

Mr Mullooly, who is who is running in the five-seat Midlands North-West constituency for Independent Ireland, said that farmers ‘cannot and should not be blamed for something they are not responsible for’.

“But while nobody denies that water quality is essential for everyone, and should be a priority, the majority of the scrutiny for water quality falls on to the agriculture sector. It is the sector that comes in for most criticism,”, “and this is very frustrating for farmers,” he said.

Mr Mullooly claimed that there are ‘many other contributors to water quality in Ireland’ which ‘don’t seem to face the same level of scrutiny’.    

“Local authority sewage treatment works, for example, contribute millions of gallons of treated water, but these were never designed for the volumes going through them with the increase in population of the towns they serve, and they are not able to cope,” he said.

“It is widely believed that many of these may be discharging large quantities of untreated, or incorrectly treated sewage or water into the countryside. This is going to have major impact on everyone. When the water is discharged from these sewage treatment plants, it is monitored at rivers and watercourses. If it fails to meet the required standard, the spotlight comes immediately back on farmers. This is unfair and must be addressed.

Mr Mullooly said farmers must be given the time and the technology to improve their practices in order to be compliant with water quality regulations.

The former RTÉ midlands correspondent has been involved in community development as a volunteer and administrator for over 30 years, delivering projects as part of a team, in areas such as tidy towns, social inclusion and sports and recreation.