Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is important to make that point because farmers are obviously frustrated on two levels. First, they did everything they were asked to do in order to seek to improve water quality, but now the rug has been pulled out from under them because the time has not been given to see the outcome of the actual measures they broke their backs in doing in the first instance. Second, as the Minister said, we have to work off the science. We are paying for these reports. When Teagasc did a report in regard to nutrient use, it concluded that the stocking rate is not the key driver of nitrates in water. If that is the conclusion, we are not working off the science. It is important to make that point. If we are paying for these research reports and to get work done, but we are then doing the opposite, that does not make any sense to me when it comes to following the science or not.

On the announcement that was made two weeks ago, the biggest frustration is that we do not know who or where is affected and we do not know what supports are going to be put in place for farmers who are affected by the drop from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha. I appreciate that the Minister has said that the areas will be known by the end of the month. It is important that this timeline is stuck to. There is much uncertainty now, as if there was not enough already across the board in farming due to how difficult it is for so many farmers to make ends meet.

The way output and input prices and everything else have gone has put a lot of pressure on farmers, particularly in the dairy sector where they did invest. The Minister made the point about the difficulty of negotiating in 2021 against a backdrop of increasing cow numbers at the time. However, in many cases that was on the back of instruction by Government policy to invest, grow and expand. All that was done in good faith by farmers in the dairy sector. They end up paying the price every time and will do so in this case also.

Before the announcement of the decision at that meeting, had the Department at any stage considered that the 220 kg N/ha might come to pass? Was any work done by the Department to look at what would be done if we got to 220 kg N/ha ahead of the meeting and ahead of all that? Did the Department work on that beforehand?