Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Agreed. For example, I know a guy who has 50 acres. He put an application in. It was in two and a half years. He was sitting there waiting. All that land is now ploughed. It is now drained.

It now will have 30 years of slurry. It will have 30 years of fertiliser and 30 years of cattle, with the help of God, for that person, all because of what went on within in the licensing system. That is the reality of what the Department has ended up with. That is the reality of what is happening on the ground, just so that Mr. Gleeson will know.

The number of licence applications in the system in July was 5,300. A year ago, when Mr. Hayes and Mr. Dunne were in, with the 1,900 and the famous 2,500 that were missing, that were 4,400. Have we improved at all in the whole year?