Ms Sadhbh O'Neill:

I just want to come in on the point about the north west and midlands. There is something being conflated here. Yes, there are more high nature value farms in the north west and midlands and in the west of Ireland. That is absolutely the case and these farms are more associated with suckler beef rather than dairy. However, the issue we are talking about is rewetting. That is because of the carbon losses from farming grasslands on organic soils. It is important to point out that you could have high nature value farming but there can also be carbon losses because of the grassland or the farming practice on that type of soil. Just because there is high nature value farming unfortunately does not rule out the possibility of other negative impacts that might need to be addressed. That is the purpose of the nature restoration law. It is wrong scientifically to conflate the two. We have to look at things in the round. Our organisations have been extremely vocal and critical of the intensification of dairy in the south and south east and the water quality deterioration. We have been entirely consistent on that all along.