Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The Brosnan proposals which were agreed by all of the stakeholders have not been accepted by the Commission. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and his officials, in addition to my officials, went to Brussels where we had discussions with the Commission on the basis of the Brosnan proposals. However the Commission is still adamant that it will not accept the proposals. In particular, it believes the mandatory waste storage periods are too short. The Commission also takes issue with the closed periods. It accepts the division of zones in theory but the ones proposed by Brosnan are not acceptable. The Commission wishes to see regulations having a binding effect on farmers and it did not consider that the material in the proposals was sufficiently detailed.

Further exploration and discussions are needed with the Commission to ascertain what will be acceptable to it. That is why I said that discussions and negotiations are taking place. The situation is serious. There are major financial implications for us, in the region of €11 million, once the court case date clicks in. As well as not getting agreement we will have difficulties in our rural development measure, about which I would have serious concerns. Moreover, the farming community is aware that there must be an opportunity to discuss and negotiate what will be acceptable to the Commission and to the farming fraternity.

See this speech in context