Fine Gael has claimed that farmers will not be able to meet a deadline on new anti-pollution laws on nitrates and will face financial penalties, due to ongoing inaction by Government.
The party's agriculture spokesman Denis Naughten has said that a grants system to help farmers upgrade their waste-management facilities will not be in place until late 2006, leaving it almost impossible for them to adhere to nitrate regulations, which are to come into effect in 2007.
He also accused the Government of inaction on securing a deal with the European Commission on the nitrates directive.
Rejecting this, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche yesterday claimed that Fine Gael was "completely out of touch" with recent developments.
Under the nitrates directive, the Government is obliged to draw up a nitrates management plan, which will effectively limit the amounts of fertiliser and animal waste farmers can release into the general environment.
The plans, which were to have been in place by the mid-1990s, have previously been strongly resisted by farming organisations as being unworkable in some parts.
The introduction of management plans have been described by the Environmental Protection Agency as a priority to address the polluted condition of many inland rivers and lakes in Ireland.
In January the European Commission rejected the Government's latest plan as being insufficient to tackle environmental concerns. The Government is hoping for a derogation on some aspects of the directive in return, which will allow farmers to spread more fertiliser than the directive states is allowable.
In April, the Government submitted a revised plan, which is currently being examined by the European Commission.
Mr Naughten claimed the Government was proceeding at "a snail's pace". He said: "As of now, we still have no final action plan, no derogation negotiations under way and no agreed increase in waste-management grants needed to allow Irish farmers to increase their waste storage capacity."
Mr Naughten said Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan had already conceded that she would not consider increasing waste-management grants until the directive was agreed.
"This means that such grants would not be processed and paid out to farmers until at least end 2006," he said. "Once again, Irish farmers are being exposed to further penalties and restrictions because of our Government Ministers' gross incompetence."
Mr Roche claimed that Fine Gael was "quite ignorant" about developments and he was confident the commission would accept the Government's new plan, as early as the autumn. It could not decide on a grant scheme until it had reached a deal with the European Commission.
The Government had worked closely with the farming groups on the plan and he was satisfied with the compromise, he said.