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

My question was going to be more on the social aspect, as the Cathaoirleach has outlined, more than on the economic, as that has been discussed quite a lot here this evening and by the witnesses. I think that is well understood but for the purposes of the report, we intend to do the social and the generational and the renewal parts, as those are just as important to highlight.

It relates to the huge uncertainty that is there. Why would you spend thousands investing when you do not know how long the derogation is going to stay at its current level or whether it will come down the next time or the time after that? Elections are coming up and as we are going to have a new environmental Commissioner and a new one in agriculture as well, that uncertainty is hugely unhelpful. When you are in a model of farming like that of the derogation farmers and when you are depending - when the derogation is looked at every few years - on it to remain as is, do the witnesses have a view on how that model could be changed and looked at on a longer-term basis, particularly if water quality is seen to improve the next time? I imagine it will, insofar as the measures farmers had carried out the last time with the interim review did not have time to bed in and therefore the consequences of it were not seen in the first place. Having said that, from everything we have heard this evening it appears that while farmers can do every action going, what they contribute in respect of water quality is so small that even if they do every measure, we need a much wider response to this because it is not just the farmers. We need to put that point across at European level because reducing the derogation consistently is not going to improve water quality on its own, definitely not to where it needs to be. Do the witnesses have a view on that model changing to look at a longer-term option rather than this dependence on derogation every few years, which is no way to run a business a farm at all?