Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food
Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
2:00 am
Dr. Daire Ó hUallacháin:
I can come in on water quality and this reiterates what Mr. Massey said. While the results were disappointing for the first six months, they need to be taken into a longer trend context but we also must take flow into account. Water flow was significantly reduced for the first six months of the year, particularly for March and April. We could have more or less the same number of nutrients moving in the system as we had last year, but because the flow has been a lot lower, the concentration could be higher. Ultimately, the load might be smaller or lower but the concentration is higher. That could be one of the-----