Dr. Jenny Deakin:

I can follow up there. Whether there is a link is certainly a key question for the Commission when it reviews the nitrates action programme. As Ms Gurrie said, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has charged Teagasc with making that assessment of the impact of derogation farms, specifically on water quality.

To put the numbers in context, as the members will probably be aware, we have approximately 135,000 farmers but only 7,000 of those are derogation farmers. They are spread and it is quite difficult to pin down precisely from the data we would have, for example, in a river, what the specific contribution from an individual derogation farm would be within the overall rate or mix of farming.

What we see, as Ms Gurrie, said, is a relationship between intensity generally and water quality. There is a correlation. The more animals and the more fertilisation in the system, the more nitrogen in the system, and we see that reflected in the water quality.