Mr. Bill Callanan:

What we try to do on the policy side is that we have the framework of the agricultural catchment. Much is learned from that and it also a focus point for discussion groups and awareness-building for farmers. It is a huge resource in that respect. I am not sure what would be the merit is of having one for every catchment. What we learned from that was that because it was structured in such a way that there was variety of farming and soil types, it can give good indications. The translation of that into practical support for farmers is through the ASSAP. Effectively this is using and building awareness among individual farmers by having identified, using EPA data, where this programme should be rolled out first. There are about 120 areas. It uses those learnings and brings farmers to programmes such as the ASSAP. I am not sure of the particular value. It is expensive, costing more than €2 million a year to run it. We do it at a far higher standard than is required just for the reporting under the nitrates directive. We have much more data from it so it is a tremendous source. However in terms of practical assistance for farmers, that is delivered through programmes such as ASSAP. Building on the knowledge gleaned from the ASSAP, people know what is happening in Timoleague and what similar farming styles can do.