Ms Emer Connolly:

Unfortunately, my colleague would have been able to answer in more detail. Temporary abstractions are likely in two scenarios. One is very defined and limited, for example, boreholes or a scientific examination of something very small and specific. The other would be if there is a drought or some kind of crisis that requires much more abstraction for a particular reason. Any temporary abstraction must take account of the scale of the water body, the quality, the impact etc. The regulations will go into more details on those. It is anticipated that they will set out the criteria for temporary abstractions and what the impact will be. I cannot give much more detail, but I can come back on it.