Mr. Tim Cullinan:

I thank the Senator, who is correct. I described that red map as nonsensical from the day it was released to the media. It has caused a lot of concern and worry to farmers up and down the country. As we see, the vast majority of the country is included in this map and other areas where there is intensive activity have been excluded as well.

My understanding of the red map is that the EU Commission requested the EPA to come forward with this red map and, as the Senator correctly states, all it has done is create confusion.

Mr. Herlihy made a good point earlier on here - this is very important - that only 6% of the groundwater monitoring is above the threshold allowed. Looking at that and looking at this red map, I have to question how areas of the country where there is not intensive agricultural activity being carried out currently were included in the red map in the first place.