Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in. In the context of this simplification, to put it simply, from everything I have read on what the Commissioner is on about, my understanding is that they are talking about smaller farms. There are lot of 5 ha and 10 ha farms in Europe. While there is this buzzword about making things simpler for farmers, it is not applicable to an awful lot of what we are at here in Ireland. There was talk about GAEC being looked at again, although I am hearing it will not be. There was also a piece in the newspapers today about a farmer extracting water under the water framework directive under an inspection with an inspector from the Department of agriculture. The inspector has to look to see whether more than 25 cu. m per day is being taken out of a private well under the BISS. It is said that that might be eliminated. What I am wondering-----