Dr. Marie Archbold:

May I add to this? We were listening to the previous discussions with the ICMSA. To clarify, the monitoring data used for the nitrates directive are slightly different from those used for the water framework directive in that monitoring points have been specifically picked under the nitrates directive to reflect agricultural land use. Essentially, they have been designed to try to rule out what the Deputy is talking about, namely all the other land-use impacts, including from sewage, hydromorphology and sediment. That removes the question being asked. One will find that the issue of the estuaries is not really considered in the nitrates directive monitoring dataset; it is focused primarily on river water bodies. Again, that removes the issue that was spoken about, namely that of the Waterford estuary. That is more related to what we have to report on under the water framework directive, not the reporting we are here to talk about today. The set of data is a separate one designed specifically to monitor the impact from agriculture under the nitrates directive.