{"id":230473,"date":"2025-12-13T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/230473\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:38:11","slug":"dr-tony-holohan-claims-public-health-ignored-as-minister-welcomes-nitrates-derogation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/230473\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Tony Holohan claims public health ignored as Minister welcomes nitrates derogation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan<\/a> has criticised the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon<\/a> for failing to consider public health while celebrating the extension of the nitrates derogation which allows pollution opt-outs for farmers. <\/p>\n

The Minister hit back, saying there are \u201cno concerns from a human health perspective\u201d and the derogation supports farmers to produce nutritious food crucial for public health. <\/p>\n

Dr Holohan made his remarks in a post on the LinkedIn<\/a> social media site where he took issue with the Minister saying the derogation decision from Europe was \u201cgood news\u201d and a \u201cspecial day\u201d for agriculture. <\/p>\n

The three-year derogation extension allows 7,000 Irish farmers to keep more cattle and spread more manure and nitrogen fertilisers on their land than is permitted under the Nitrates Directive which is designed to protect water quality in rivers and lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an environmental health and human health perspective … this news is not so good,\u201d Dr Holohan wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow can this be a great day when Environmental Protection Agency data still shows nitrate pollution and ecological damage in exactly the catchments most affected by intensive stocking, and when those same waters underpin drinking water, amenity and recreation, fisheries and coastal health?\u201d <\/p>\n

Dr Holohan led Ireland\u2019s public health response to the Covid crisis as chief medical officer and is now director of the One Health Centre at University College Dublin. <\/p>\n

Directing his remarks to Mr Heydon, he asked if any consideration was given to assessing the human health impacts of extending the derogation. <\/p>\n

He said there should be particular concern for families with private wells, bathing waters, shellfish areas and communities already living with repeated water quality problems. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a One Health perspective, how do you justify locking in very high stocking rates in the most vulnerable catchments when Ireland is already struggling to meet its commitments on water quality?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n

The European Court of Justice last month found Ireland breached multiple EU regulations governing pollution control and the health of rivers and other natural water sources.<\/p>\n

In a statement in response to Dr Holohan\u2019s comments, Mr Heydon defended the derogation and said he was \u201cjustifiably proud\u201d of farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the farmers that we depend on to provide the safe and nutritious food that we enjoy daily and which contributes so crucially to our human health,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said while he recognised that Irish water quality required improvement, it compared favourably with European counterparts. <\/p>\n

\u201cIreland compares generally well in EU comparisons for low overall nitrate levels in water with no concerns from a human health perspective,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Dr Holohan said the Government must plan for the end of the derogation because when it eventually came, it would cause severe stress for farm families. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has criticised the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon for failing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,64,18,11394,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,304,15,16,30839,5,58,7,8,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-230473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-covid-19","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-environmental-protection-agency-epa","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-linkedin","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-martin-heydon","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-tony-holohan","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-university-college-dublin-ucd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115710886272320933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}