Dr. Cilian Roden:

Scientists carry out research. It is quite clear that, with an efficiency of 25% to 30%, 70% of our nitrogen, which costs a lot of money to import, is being flushed into the lakes. We are pushing it into the bottom of Lady's Island Lake. I am not an expert in that area but, as a scientist, I fully believe that if we put the research into it, we could come up with far more efficient systems. I am not much of an expert on Teagasc but I would think that any national programme would demand far higher efficiencies. That means new fertilisers, new ways of applying it and new crops. We have to do this research.