Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives from the EPA for attending the meeting today and for their submission to the committee. Many of the issues I was curious about at the start of the meeting have been addressed by other members, so I will not go back over old ground. I have two questions. The second is one I will probably have to make a statement on to explain what I am coming at, but I stress I want the witnesses' opinion and it is a question.

First, I realise the witnesses are concentrating today on nitrates and phosphorous on the agriculture side because this is the relevant committee on agriculture. Have the witnesses encountered any or many issues with water quality or issues in watercourses that have emanated from road run-off or soiled water from roads? I ask that question as somebody who lives in a very rural part of Ireland and I hear farmers complaining about the fact they are only allowed to put out slurry or soiled water on land a certain distance from a watercourse and at certain times of the year, yet all the run-off from the road is directed straight into the stream with no filtration system. Have the witnesses come across many or any issues in watercourses that they could track back to soiled run-off water?

The second question probably seeks the witnesses' opinion. I appreciate the witnesses have explained, both in their opening statement and in many of their answers today, that the EPA is basically the organisation that surveys and monitors and then the information it collects is fed into the policy process. It has an input into the writing of the policy in that regard in that it feeds into it. With that in mind and in regard to slurry spreading and the prohibited periods, I would like the witnesses' opinion on restriction by calendar. Do they think that is the most effective method being used when it comes to the regulations? I will explain what I mean by that. Do they think it is more damaging to spread slurry in a very wet February when you are not allowed to do it in what could be a very dry October? Could our policies or our prohibited periods be changed based on climate more so than by a date in the calendar? We can never predict whether it is going to be a wet fall, winter or spring. It has happened in numerous years that, although the spreading of slurry is prohibited from mid-September, the months of October and November were the two driest months of the year. Every tank in the country is full once the prohibition lifts and farmers have no choice but to get it out onto what can then be saturated land in February and early March. Which is the worst for the quality of the water? How would the witnesses propose we might change that scenario to gain the best benefit for our water quality?