Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Commissioner referred to the role of farmers in protecting water resources. However, some of the major polluters have nothing to do with agriculture. Farmers have taken significant measures to protect resources. For example, the spreading of slurry - farm waste - is done on a calendar basis. This is a crazy system, in my view. A farmer must spread slurry according to a certain date on the calendar even if heavy rain is forecast for the following day and the slurry will be washed away, but he or she is not permitted to spread slurry during fine weather when it would cause the least damage. It is a crazy EU regulation. That is one example. There has to be common sense on both sides and sadly, it seems to be very much lacking on the bureaucratic side.