Mr. Ruaidhrí O'Boyle:

On the Senator's second point around derogations, when the farming lobby groups appeared before the committee recently they stated they did not agree with derogations for land types. An Taisce is probably at one with them on that. Derogations do not really work. We have had a derogation from the nitrates directive for some time but we do not seem to be able to get our emissions down. I am not familiar with the calculations on the impact of the trailing shoe or reduced spreading but that is one part of the emissions profile. Without the numbers in front of me, I cannot say how much that would reduce emissions. I presume the EPA or Teagasc will have looked into the matter