Mr. Tim Cullinan:

I compliment the Chairman on organising this event this morning because we are at a crucial time with another submission going in. It is concerning for us that the Department left this submission very late, coming near the endgame. We have to look at the key sector that is going to be impacted by this. Other sectors such as livestock and tillage will be impacted to a lesser extent but we must look at the dairy sector and the investment that has gone into it since the abolition of quotas. Farmers have put in excess of €2.2 billion of their own funding into developing their businesses over the last number of years. Their co-op infrastructure has put in approximately €1.5 billion as well. That is a massive amount of money. Overall, we have continued during Covid and during the crash in 2008 we were the one sector in the country that kept performing. We have exports of €14 billion a year and for every €10 that is exported out of the country, €9 goes back into the local rural economy.

That is what it is about.

We have some key issues on this. First, we must ensure Department officials, when they go back to Brussels, retain the derogation for farmers. It has been around since 2005. It has helped farmers to expand their herds and brought efficiencies to those herds. Many measures have been put in place. Farmers are working to those and we need time to see those measures work.

We have great concern around water quality and the testing of water by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. We have been trying to get some of those results. There are testing stations downstream from major towns and cities. We know there are concerns around the water treatment plants in those towns and cities and we cannot be the whipping boys taking the blame for what is going on there. The results downstream from those plants should be made available to us as farmers. We want to be part of the solution here. We want to be able to assess water quality in a proper manner and to see what is going on there.

The second issue I want to raise is the storage and management of soiled water. The practice to date has been that farmers are distributing the soiled water over lands during the winter period. This has to continue. There are 3.3 units of nitrogen per 2,500 gallons where with slurry there are 16 units per 2,500 gallons. There is no comparison whatsoever. It is a practice that was agreed a number of years ago between us and the Department and it needs to continue.

My next concern is around the covering of outdoor storage tanks. This is being done is for abatement on ammonia-----