Dr. Eimear Cotter:

The main issues on nitrates that we are seeing are in the south and the south east and particularly manifesting in the estuaries in those areas. More than two thirds of the estuaries in Cork, for example, are impacted by high nitrates levels. We can see this impact in those areas in the form of the algae blooms. They are noxious and odorous and knock out any sort of healthy ecosystems there. The south and south east of the country are particularly impacted by high nitrates levels coming off the free-draining soils in those areas.