Mr. Feargal Ó Coigligh:

There are a lot of questions there. I hope I did not say that the issue was not significant. What I tried to suggest, if I did not say it, is in terms of the environmental pressures on water in the Irish environment, there are many more significant issues.

In terms of coming to an appropriate level to have registration and then licensing, there is an evidential base either way, which would allow one either to stay where one is, or to relax it or decrease it. I do not think we have an evidential base to suggest that the issue of abstraction at that level is of such significance as to require registration. However, as I said, we are open to further views on that. The EPA is the expert in the field and can guide us in the future.

Registration is not hugely burdensome. There are 1,583 abstractions registered with the EPA at the moment. That was brought in by regulations introduced in 2018 as a stopgap measure to begin the process. It is a pretty light touch and that is on purpose. If the Deputy wants to add additional measures to that it is possible, and then it becomes a lesser licence. It is a matter for the Oireachtas to decide on the right level of burden that it wants to introduce.

In terms of the limits chosen for the licensing regime, we work closely with the EPA to try to gauge what would be an appropriate limit and I suspect that is where those figures come from.