Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both organisations for coming in. As the Chair said, they were very comprehensive submissions. The witnesses will find no enemies in this room and the committee is steadfast in its commitment to ensure that we hold onto the derogation. What we want from farm organisations is the ammunition and means so we can go to our political peers and, more importantly, go to Europe to say that this is what we need to retain for this industry. The Chair, in particular, has been very vocal on this and took a number of members to Europe on the matter. We want to work collectively with both organisations. We want to protect and safeguard our dairy industry and the vibrant farming communities across the country. This is a key year for both organisations, with a European election coming up.

I will move to questions shortly. Having gone through the two submissions, we need to get both organisations before the housing committee because they have brought up very valid points on the planning issues they are encountering, in particular with slurry issues. In terms of the ask we made of the organisations, they have given us a comprehensive outline of what we need to do and where we need to give them the capacity to address water quality issues. One of the issues is planning, where we really need to do something. I will go first to the ICMSA. Does it have figures from its members regarding the number of applications for slurry storage that are held up, or has it done any work on that at this point?