Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am quite frankly taken aback that the Minister does not see what the outworking of that will be. He mentioned this in respect of the review of the nitrates derogation. That is a review that nobody other than the Minister and his officials were even aware of when the nitrates action plan was signed off on. We have seen and heard over the past number of weeks about the difficulties this has created. The very fact that the Minister has now indicated that he will seek flexibility in that regard suggests that he has now belatedly recognised that there are difficulties in the wording that was agreed on that front.

We are saying to the Minister in good faith that this creating issues in cross-Border trade and they need to be addressed. I genuinely did not think this was going to be a point of serious debate because what we were looking for was a serious commitment from the Minister that he would make all efforts he could to have the matters addressed before the order came into place. He has not done that and, therefore, I will press the amendment.