“Huge efforts” taken by farmers to improve water quality have “been absolutely critical”, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has said.

The minister said that despite farmers possibly feeling like the goalposts have changed when it comes to the derogation, he is stressing to farmers that any measures taken up to now “were not a waste”, and they were “absolutely right” to carry them out.

“We wouldn’t be on the pitch now as the last remaining country in the EU to be seeking another derogation if they hadn’t made those efforts and didn’t see improvement in water quality,” he said during a farm walk event in Bandon in Co. Cork.