Mr. John Murphy:

People do not have a lot of trust in what is happening at the minute. There are too many issues of unanswered questions about these estuaries and the nitrogen levels. We are on a journey here to reduce our risk to the environment in lots of different shapes and forms. Water quality is one of them.

Slurry storage in the country is a national asset the same as putting up more treatment plants for an expanding population and we need time to get this in order. We need finance and we need time, and we need information and knowledge. Definitely, the advisory programme to farmers, especially on individual catchment areas, has to improve. The industry is getting on board with the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme, ASSAP, but it has to be expanded. In reality, it needs Exchequer financing as well. It is as important to educate people, and even everybody in broader society, about what is going on as well as putting the storage in place and giving farmers the tools to deal with it in the longer term.