Mr. Francie Gorman:

There are a couple of comments I will make on that. I thank the Deputy for his contribution.

Has Europe woken up? Farmers were always awake to the dangers of this but it is the frustration at the political classes not listening to the concerns we had that have really put huge pressure on farmers over the past number of years, and particularly if you look at the way the derogation was handled from April 2022 when it was announced as a fait accompli. We finished up, in September, with the Commissioner coming over.

He did not think for a second of visiting a farm - and there were a number of them within half an hour of Dublin - to see best practice. That frustrated farmers in a huge way. It probably undermined their confidence in the Commission particularly, that he would not come and see what best practice is in this country by visiting a derogation farmer who was implementing all the measures in the Teagasc marginal abatement cost curve, MACC, and showing this. It shattered the farmers' confidence in their belief that they were going to get a fair bang for their buck in how the review of this nitrates action programme would be handled. T.J. Maher said 50 years ago when we were going into Europe that it was our grass-based system that gave us an advantage in how we could compete in terms of producing our product and selling it. We have the highest labour costs and the highest energy costs in Europe and if we are going to be able to compete selling our product, we have to retain the advantage that our grass-based system gives us. All we are looking for is an opportunity to demonstrate that to the powers that be and time to show that the measures we are taking and implementing on our farms will deliver. In answer to the Deputy's question, we are definitely - at the very least - frustrated. We want to see a greater level of engagement with farmers around how this review is conducted. Teagasc and the EPA have to be included as well. I am 100% clear on this. It is a red-line issue for us that if the industry comes together, the processing industry comes on board, and with the support of our Government and politicians, it can be delivered. It will not be for the want of action on behalf of the organisations before the committee, whether it is ourselves or the ICMSA.