Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Daly has given a very accurate summary there. We can argue about the frequency of the tests being set out and we can argue about the terminology in this report, but if you were to ask two experts, you can always get a different version of information. The bottom line is there has been huge investment in technology and huge buy-in to different farming practices. In today's discussion we have not even mentioned clover or multi-species swards and the impact these can have on chemical nitrogen. As Mr. Buckley said, if we are to keep the farmers on side to try to win this battle with water quality, we must give these improvements time to work, or whatever the correct term is. Banding of nitrogen will have its own impact but there is also the low emissions slurry spreading and many different things that have been taken on there, including the cambering of roadways, moving of water tanks and so on. There are so many different things that have been done. If those measures force it down to 220 kg, they could actually go under the radar. The improvement in the water quality that would follow would be attributed to the reduction in stocking rates and not to the improvements that have been made at farm level. That is the key message we must win in Brussels. We must give these improvements time to work. There has been serious farmer buy-in to these measures. We cannot emphasise enough the Timoleague case. There is a huge proportion of derogation for farmers and water quality is improving, which clearly shows the derogation in place for dairy farmers is bringing about a concrete improvement in water quality.