Mr. Laurence Fallon:

It is not. It is absolutely not a functioning SAC now because even taking one of the designations it had, for example, there was a percentage of rare plants that grew around the perimeter of the turlough and they were designated as being extremely important and one of the main reasons it was so designated. They cannot be flourishing now because where they were growing is under 2 m of water.

We want to register our disappointment at the lack of any support coming from those who were protecting the SAC before this. They have done no assessment on the damage done. They were the people who were in charge of ensuring that we, as farmers, looked after the turlough and the SAC. They were there as the representatives of the Government and as the representatives of the EU, who designated it as an SAC. Since the flood came, they have disappeared. I would think it is at least accepted that the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, should have done a study to see what is in the lake seven years after the first crisis developed. It has not done that and it is an abdication of responsibility. If the EU was to see what has happened to our turlough, it would immediately question whether we have the equivalent of another Derrybrien or not.

Mr. Kearney gave the Senator information about how we are penalised as farmers, rightly so, because we overstated the land we had due to the flooding. We took advice from the National Parks and Wildlife Service as to what we should do to maintain the SAC. As soon as the problem because one that was not ours, it disappeared. It is a disappointment.