Mr. David Flynn:

Two monitoring programmes are under consideration here. One is the monitoring programme for the nitrates directive, which my colleague spoke about earlier. The nitrates directive set out the rules and requirements of the monitoring programme in detail, including reporting and methodologies. When it comes to breaking down the wider picture, one needs to look at the water framework directive monitoring programme. That looks at 4,842 water bodies across Ireland. A significant risk has been identified in about 2,810 of those. I listed those earlier, including agriculture, hydromorphology, forestry and so on. We can provide details of both programmes to the committee in writing. That is no problem whatsoever. The requirements essentially come down to the concentration of the chemicals that one is looking at in water and the biology that one is examining. While we might be talking about modelling and attribution, when it comes down to brass tacks, the concentration of the chemical in the water and the biology in the water, as found by the EPA and local authority experts, is what matters.