Mr. Tom Medlycott:

If the sampling is required by the directive, which will come into force by national legislation, we will have to work out how the sampling is carried out. I go back to the point that the sampling is done on a range of things. That is at a member state level. That information is provided. It is not that an individual farmer whose sample is taken has to do certain things and nobody else has to do anything. It is that those samples identify the issues with the soils in Ireland, if there are any, and sustainable management practices are promoted within Ireland to try to address those issues identified through the national sampling programme. Then we will sample again and do the same in a number of years again on a range of sample points across the country. Currently, it is taken that should be done every five years, though that might be changed, and there will be a measure of whether we have improved or not. If we have not, further measures will have to be promoted to try to promote sustainable soil management.