Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food

Supports for Private Advisory Providers Delivering Advice on Nitrates and Water Quality Improvements: Agricultural Consultants Association

2:00 am

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I want to go back to one thing, just to be clear. I am a farmer, moving slurry. My understanding, and I want clarity on this, is that if a farmer is moving slurry, the Department sends a text to the farmer and the receiver. If I put in a BISS application and I have a problem with it, it will come to me as the farmer and it will also go to the planner who filled it out. The query goes to them. Am I correct in saying that private planners do not get a text when that slurry is moving? Am I also correct in saying that, under what is being proposed at the moment by the Department, if a planner signs off on that slurry being moved, the weather becomes bad, it is not done and the planner does not have a bull's clue what is going on, because they signed off on the slurry being moved, they are liable to be struck off as one of the sanctions? Is that right or wrong? Where are we at with negotiations or when is it proposed that this will come in? That is a damning thing over your head. It is like someone else playing a game of football and you getting the blame for losing it.