Mr. John Murphy:

Deputy Collins who was asking if we had confidence in the political system. We were involved in Cork last April 12 months ago and we started this campaign because we could see where it was going. We got on to politicians, started up an awareness campaign and it gained momentum after a number of months. Unfortunately, a lot of the harm was done in the previous year that we did not know anything about. We felt seriously let down by the Government of the day. It did not bat hard enough for us when the derogation was being sought. The narrative from the officials was: "Look, we had to agree, we were lucky to get it". They were four months late getting it and my understanding is that they were so late because they were waiting for EPA reports that were delayed over six months. The whole thing was you were being backed into a corner and then they agreed to stuff that in reality we could not achieve. Therefore, there is a huge lack of confidence in what happened at that juncture and we were back-pedalling then for the next 18 months. It moved on then to the situation where the EPA took months and months to produce its report to give us the final say on which parts of the country, or if any of the country, would go down to 220 kg N/ha and then it went all the way to nearly the middle of October before the Department wrote to farmers to tell them they had to reduce their stocking density in different parts. We have a seasonal calving system and a grass-based system. Plans are made between January and April for the following year so we had a situation then where people were backed into a corner. You can see how it came to light then. It came to light first in the land market nearly 18 months ago when fellas in the know realised there was a huge problem there. It exploded. Then the market collapsed for replacement dairy stock overnight. That is massive asset destruction for farmers who built up businesses over the years and they are really sore over it. This thing has come up on the political agenda and we are delighted it has. Now we have to pull together here and make sure this thing is protected. Mr. Buckley is absolutely right in saying that talking about a derogation and that we are the only ones getting it is just nonsense. We have such a different system.