Mr. Bill Callanan:

The first matter was dredging. That is really not of interest to us. We just expressed a response here in relation to habitats, but let us call a spade a spade. Principally, the assessment of habitat compliance here will revolve around that issue of nutrient load, not dredging and so on. It is nutrient load that is controlled under the nitrates action programme. That is what we will be assessing in terms of compliance with the habitats directive.

On what RENURE is, under the nitrates directive there is a limit regarding the organic manure that is applied to land. It is not about the manure that is present, because every pig farmer or large intensive unit can have a lot more nitrate than 170 kg N/ha; it is the amount of manure applied to land. Under RENURE, which was recently positively voted on, nutrient from animal manures that have been converted effectively into a chemical equivalent will not to be counted.