Dr. Eimear Cotter:

In regard to this committee, we focused our opening statement and our discussion on the agriculture sector. It constitutes the most significant pressure we see on water quality in the country. We are not looking at it to the exclusion of any other pressures. We discussed inadequately treated wastewater earlier and there are other pressures from areas such as forestry. We are also examining changes to rivers and their shapes and flows, for example. We are not focused on agriculture to the exclusion of all other pressures but, at the same time, that sector is exerting pressure on 1,000 water bodies in the country by virtue of our land use in Ireland. We seek to ensure that the agriculture sector, which is very important to us as a country, will continue to support our agrifood industry in respect of its green credentials. That can happen only if the sector moves forward on a sound environmental footing. As we see it, from where we sit looking at the science, evidence and data, those trends are going in the wrong direction for agriculture. That is what the science and the data are telling us.