Dr. Matthew Crowe:

I wish to comment on the protect issue because it is very important for the third cycle. The second cycle was truncated. It was really a four-year cycle because it took Ireland longer to get the plan together than other countries in Europe for a variety of reasons. The focus for the second cycle was very much on restore. The plan was constructed in a way that what are called the basic measures would deal with the protect bit and then the additional measures, such as the creation of LAWPRO, ASSAP and new things, would deal with the restore bit. What has happened is that while there is evidence from the most recent EPA reports that there are improvements happening in the areas for action, where a focus from LAWPRO and ASSAP is taking place and a number of water bodies are improving, unfortunately, there are also a number of water bodies in other places that are deteriorating. That is why the protect piece is so important for the third cycle. Essentially, the protect needs to be considered on an equal footing to restore. If it is not, the risk is that we will put lots of resources into the restore bit and probably be very successful in doing that, but, meanwhile, in other catchments water quality will deteriorate and, essentially, we end up in the same place overall.

All that can be catered for by proper integrated catchment management, which the country is learning how to do far better than it would have been able to do six years ago or so. There is a lot of hope that this can be resolved. When I mentioned the outcome-based approach at the start, which the Water Forum has done a great deal of thinking about over the last few months, the point is that every water body needs an objective for the next six years. That objective is either to keep it good quality if it is already at good quality, which is the protect bit, or to restore it if it is at bad, moderate or poor status currently. That is a big job, but that part of it is fairly simple in terms of just having a concept in one's head about what the scale of the challenge is. If we do not do that, I guarantee that six years hence there will be continued deterioration of the waters that are currently at good quality. Some of them will continue to deteriorate. It is something that is particularly important for the design of this plan.