Professor John Sweeney:

If there is to be any hope of retaining the derogation at the current level, it is imperative that enforcement of the current regulations is strictly observed. One of the questions this committee may ask Teagasc is to comment on recent reports about the movement of slurry not being according to regulations, for example, and the issues of paper farms being used to disguise the same amount of slurry being spread on existing farms above and beyond the derogation limit. Those are things that the Commission will be interested in. It has already appointed a number of inspectors to look closely at the Dutch case where it found derogation being breached in these kinds of areas. It is important for the committee to find out and get a commitment from Teagasc that existing regulations will be enforced ruthlessly, because farmers will depend on that. The farmers who are doing the right thing do not wish to be compromised by any kind of breach of the regulations elsewhere.