Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. I do not come from an agricultural background, but I have been a member of Oireachtas agriculture committee for the last year and it truly has been an education. However, this session has been even more of an education. I am fascinated by both the Burren project and the BRIDE Project. They are very different in that one is dairy whereas the Burren project is small farms and is more suckler farming, I believe. I am fascinated by the idea of the BRIDE project and that we can have this intensive dairy farming. I am hearing that there is a possibility we can do that and that if we do it right, there will not be the wholesale destruction of watercourses that we have seen. Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, appeared before the agriculture committee a few weeks ago and they told us that we are absolutely not going to achieve our objectives under the EU water framework directive of all our water bodies having good status by 2027. There is a great deal of scepticism - I am not saying it was from them, but I have heard it in the public domain - about the new nitrates action plan and whether that is going to deliver the improvements and stop the leaching of phosphates and nitrates into watercourses. I am hearing from Mr. Sheehan with respect to the BRIDE project that perhaps there is a way forward. That is very positive. Dairy is the big challenge in Ireland from an emissions point of view.

I hear Dr. Moran's call regarding the CAP strategic plan and the consultation which he told us will start in the next week or two. Will it run for eight weeks?