Mr. Brendan Cooney:

I will take this. That is part of the problem. Farmers are substantially compliant with the current legislation. If nitrate levels are reduced, there will have to be changes in the Department's rules or we will have to help farmers to farm in a slightly different way. That was mentioned among the findings of the report done by Dr. O'Connor and Dr. Roden. They gave a list of things that we do. We put in buffer zones that are bigger than required. We have buffer zones of 10 m instead of 3 m. We actively manage the buffer zones rather than just putting in a buffer and walking away.

In addition, we could put in constructive wetlands. It is a larger effort that will take out the sediment. Much of the sediment that comes off the catchment is where the phosphorus is located. We could put in a buffer zone around the lakeshore as well. Farmers will be able to continue farming exactly as they are but it will help them to reduce their impact on the water. That is what it comes down to.

The Deputy is correct that the Department of agriculture needs to be involved in this. Dr. Bleasdale mentioned that as well. We are not the only bodies involved. A number of other bodies must come together to work with this. As Mr. Hore said, we are happy to run with it. We did it with the Duncannon project. Duncannon lost its blue flag and then it lost its bathing waters so nobody could swim in the place. We got European integration partnerships, EIP, funding. An agricultural scientist, Dr. Mairead Shore, designed the project for us. She was with Teagasc. We engaged with the farmers and we put in additional measures beyond what was required by the Department of agriculture. It worked very well. We had public engagement. Farmers engaged once they saw what was needed and that they were not the only ones who were involved. We also engaged with Uisce Éireann on sewage that was coming out in those areas. We got significant engagement and we all pulled together. Mr. Kinsella managed it. It worked very well. We have our bathing water status back.