Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I will do the good bits first. Without being patronising, as a committee we are predominantly a male bastion so it is fantastic to see that 75% of the speakers are female and from a science background. As the Government is constantly trying to encourage more young people and especially women into science, today is a heartening day. That is part of the good news.

The other good news is that the witnesses are here in a good week for agriculture in that emissions are down 4.6% and the use of synthetic nitrogen is down 18%. That is a good news story.

I will pick up on the point Senator Daly spoke about. Despite the EPA's best efforts, we will always be a year behind in reporting. Given the challenge we face in agriculture and the one we face globally, we do not want to become a science laboratory in Ireland. We are still one of the foremost food producers in the world. The world population is growing by 1 billion people per year. Poverty levels are rampant and escalating across the world and there is an onus on us to remain a primary and key quality food producer in the world. That is an important role we have to play, notwithstanding the environmental challenge. Has the EPA ever stated that it is in the national interest or that there is a possibility or scope to do an interim report on water quality? We should be able to report on data from January to June in December 2024?