Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will ask the ACA about a few matters. It deals with more than 50% of farmers. Mr. Canning mentioned an approximate figure of 30,000. How do we get them into the mix? Does Teagasc give the ACA the rights or is the ACA charged? We all need to come together on this. Whatever bit of information he, I or someone else has, we need to collaborate. Is that possible at the moment? Is the Department working with the ACA?

I listened with interest to Mr. Canning. Did he say that even we can, for example, sow different grasses and do all the different things? In fairness to every derogation farmer, if we want water quality, with the length of the extended closed season in the line of washings, with the way it is going, we will need much more slurry storage. We need the grants to be reassessed and to be given to farmers whether they are derogation farmers or not. The Department should not hem and haw about it, because that is the only way many of the issues will be solved. From what Mr. Canning said, with which I tend to agree, even if we turn upside down and do everything, if the goalposts stay where they are, in that if a farmer goes down in one of the four areas, it is game over. Does the EPA's way of doing it not have to change as well? If I was doing the leaving certificate examination and I got three questions right and one wrong, I would get 75%. People would be proud of me. However, farmers are failures if they go down in one of the four areas. What does the ACA think about that?

I have a question for ICOS. Will there be loss if this goes down to 170 kg N/ha and what will be the consequences for employment and processing plants? If we do not keep cattle numbers up, some day we will hear that a factory has closed and everyone will be giving out about it.

Does the ICSA meet the EPA and has it met Revenue about the VAT refund? Even today, I heard about the mats for slats. They are talking about a fixed item, but I defy anyone to take mats out of one slatted shed and put them into another because each shed has a different space.

On the VAT refund, does the ICSA find that Revenue has become stringent? Why is there such a closing in on all this at a time when we need to help farmers and not kick them day in and day out?