Mr. Dan Lynam:

On water quality, I have represented ICSA on the ASSAP since the programme started in 2018 and I have taken part in many river walks and talks. I will back up what Mr. Canning said. I was at a river walk outside Birr last year where the farmer was doing everything correctly. Outside the fence, on the other side of river, the farmer had the cattle walking into the river willy-nilly. During that ASSAP, we had a river walk on our farm. The ASSAP adviser recommended two actions. First, we were planning to built a silage pit and he asked us to move it to a different place. Second, he asked us to move the cow roadway. My son is farming with me and he is in charge. We undertook to raise up and move 300 m of cow roadway following a recommendation from ASSAP. We did that with no funding from the Government or anyone else - the entire cost came out of our own pockets - in order to help water quality on our farm.

That is what we did. The ASSAP is running some pilot schemes now and because we had a river walk on our farm, we have been asked to have a pilot scheme on the Gageborough River, which flows through Clara and Offaly, but starts on our farm. That is what we are doing for water quality.