Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the three speakers for the comprehensive overview. I will try not to go over what everybody has said previously.

Looking at the nitrates concentration map in figure 1 in their report, if I draw a diagonal line from Belfast towards Kerry, it is telling that the bulk of the issue with nitrates is in the south and south east, as they rightly allude to it. You could probably think that maybe farmers on the western side of that line would feel somewhat aggrieved that they are being tagged with the issue. I appreciate there are issues with pesticides on the western seaboard. It probably comes back to a point the Chairman was trying to get at at the outset. The EPA has assigned 85% of the source of nitrogen to agriculture and yet, in its own report, it states there are significant issues with the Tolka and the Liffey river basins on the eastern seaboard as well as others in the south east.

By contrast, the majority of the nitrates in the Liffey and the Tolka catchment, which incorporates Dublin city, are from an urban wastewater. It would be remiss of me not to articulate a well-held view of farmers, that is, that because they operate such a large land base, it is not fair to compare them in the way they are compared in the EPA's reports. Statistics are like lies; they can be interpreted in different ways. The map in figure 1 is telling. There is a higher concentration of farming there but there is also a significant concentration of population and industry on that eastern seaboard. I hope it is not intentional but there is perhaps a tone in the EPA's submission, as well as in those from the two Departments, that the nitrates issue is very much one of farming only, but it is not and farmers will pay a heavy price. There will be a pesticide slurry chemical register and ours will be probably the most regulated sector in the battle against nitrates and nitrogen, and their impact on the economy.

I take it that our guests from the EPA prepared in advance of the meeting primarily to speak about the nitrates issue as it affects agriculture, but I think there is a story therein regarding the impact of industry and urban settlements. I am not sure how well prepared they are to expand on that, but will similar measures come into play for industry and, more important, for local authorities? On the one hand, they police this system but, in many respects, they are also probably one of the worst perpetrators.