Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One thing that troubles me is that it is not that long ago since €1.3 billion was spent on farm pollution control, which is a substantial figure. Slurry deaths are relatively new, although they were happening 20 years ago. All this investment - €1.3 billion - has been put into farms in the current economic climate, but that scheme was not dreamed of. I think the grant was double the amount being paid in Northern Ireland, for example. I am not looking for an answer, but €1.3 billion has been spent, much of it in the last decade. Much of that went into slurry storage, among other things, so why was some element of it not spent on trying to save lives? However, that is not a question for the witnesses to answer.