Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the witnesses for their presentations. They are very welcome. Sitting on both this committee and the agriculture committee, I can appreciate the great importance of what they are saying today. Certainly, it is something I will bring to the other committee when we meet this evening. The Water Framework Directive requires us to have a system of registration and a monitoring of the system. We acknowledge that this must be in place and I acknowledge the importance of the rich resource of water. However, there are two or three matters on which I seek further clarification. Do the rural group water schemes fall within this?

Second, we are aware of the 25 cu. m threshold. Somebody mentioned small water extractors earlier. There are many small farmers who may have wells or be in a group water scheme. Some of them may have a number of wells because where some were not successful they have bored a second and third well. Then there is the net cumulative effect of all that extraction. How does one monitor that?

I am also conscious of the importance of water in the horticulture industry. I am familiar with a number of people who draw water from rivers. That has other potential problems, but they screen that water and regularly test it because they do not know how it might be contaminated up the line or down the line and the impact of that on the crops. In north County Dublin there is an enormous amount of glasshouse production and salad production in the horticulture sector. In Wicklow and other places there is the forestry sector. It draws water and uses different sources and mechanisms for doing so. Of course, every farmer is drawing large amounts of water from a number of sources.

I am interested to hear about how the rural group water schemes interplay in all this. More important, I wish to hear about the Department's engagement with, and feedback from, the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA. Perhaps Mr. Ó Coigligh will give some points or headings on that. Clearly, they would be very exercised about this. Mr. Ó Coigligh might give us a flavour of the responses he has had from those two organisations.