Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank Mr. Nolan and the Minister. I welcome the comments from both.

To put it on the record, I certainly was not blaming all farmers. Mr. Nolan was right to say that not all farmers are to blame but it is certainly not my position that they are.

If we get that derogation from Europe but we also accept that there needs to be a targeted approach, will the Minister consider that derogations would not be granted for lands that drain into water courses that are considered at risk by the EPA? Maybe this is something that has already been discussed in that working group. I do not want to necessarily put the Minister on the spot or get an answer from him here and now, but I favour the targeted catchment approach to fixing the quality of water and using the derogation or, as the case may be, not giving a derogation to farms that are draining into those rivers, where a correlation can be shown where the derogation is leading to the degradation of water quality. I would appreciate if the Minister could consider that level of approach to the problem because it is a very serious problem that we have.