Mr. Brendan Cooney:

The legislation is there. Even Dr. O'Connor said it. We have seen it as well in the results we have to share. The Houses could enact all the legislation, including really draconian stuff, but it could still take years to see results. If the Deputy is looking to see results within six weeks, six months or a year, it is not going to happen.

It just will not happen, no matter how draconian it is. You could remove every single farmer, take all the sheds down and evacuate the place but it could still be a problem in six or ten years' time because of what is there. What I am trying to say is that the legislation put in place at this stage could already start to have an impact. It could be a case of just stabilising it and it will not get worse but we need to put in additional measures. There are repairing zones but they are not that big. In Duncannon, we put in bigger repairing zones, sediment traps on the rivers, reed beds and septic tank inspections. The septic tank inspections, as Mr. Hore pointed out, have had quite a small impact.

It was acknowledged that agriculture is the biggest thing happening at present. If good-sized repairing zones are put in, some kind of funding is needed for farmers to do it. Fencing, for example, is not cheap. Somebody must be paid to put in all this fencing. Excavators can be brought in to put in silt traps and reed beds but you need funding to do things like that. You also need someone managing it who is able to talk to all the different organisations and co-ordinate everything together. I would not jump in straight away to say we need more draconian things. It could be that an awful lot of what we already have is starting to have an impact but putting in additional things could stabilise it and start making it better.