Mr. Noel Feeney:

To respond further on the Deputy's question, we often hear about derogation farmers, an issue that gets a lot of publicity in the agricultural papers and so on, but there are 130,000 farmers out there and approximately 7,500 are in derogation. Perhaps there are a few thousand more on the surface. The rest of the farmers, whether suckler farmers or drystock farmers in Roscommon, Mayo or Cork, still have to adhere to the nitrates regulation. That involves your NMP figures and so on. That information is very important because people are, for example, importing slurry from piggeries. That is a very common occurrence in Senator Brady's part of the country, that is, Longford, Cavan and so on. As we all know, pig slurry is fantastic. You can apply it in early spring, mix it in the tank and so on. We need to know what a farmer is looking like at the start of the year, by March and at the end of the year with regard to his nitrate figures. Without that, they are bringing in slurry, which is importing nitrogen and phosphorous onto the farm. In addition, the national fertiliser database records all chemical fertiliser purchases. This information applies to every farmer and not just derogation farmers. Every farmer in Ireland is affected by this in one way or another.