Agriculture Supports
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

The fertiliser database gives us good data in relation to where we are at. Fertiliser continues to be imported into the country and the database indicates that is sufficient fertiliser in the country at present. However, products such as urea may come into short supply. We continue to monitor the price as well.
To the broader point made by Deputy Moynihan about wind generation, one would not look at that in the context of Ireland alone. We will see what is in the European Commission's proposals in the action plan on fertiliser next week when it is published by Commissioner Hansen. We will see what the medium-term elements and supports are, but it is definitely a vulnerability for Europe that we are so dependent across Europe for this key component.
The Deputy made a point about RENURE. We supported the introduction of the RENURE measure, but it is not really of major benefit to us in its current form because of the lack of anaerobic digestion here. When the Deputy talks about us building our resilience, countries that have a lot of anaerobic digestion have digestate to go back out onto the land. From a water quality perspective, as well as our efforts to maintain the nitrates derogation, that would be greatly assisted if we had more anaerobic digestion in that space. That is where RENURE kicks in.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14