Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

For the past three months, I have been saying precisely what the Deputy has been saying, which is that adequate spread lands are available. The concerns of customers of the pig and poultry sector need to be alleviated, which can be done only in the context of a working relationship, which unfortunately does not exist. However, we try to provide the greatest amount of information possible to farmers through CMMS and iMap in order to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy about which people have concerns. Ultimately, regardless of the argument, we must work with the people and support them to the best of our ability.

We have done considerable work on biomass and, during the week, I allocated an additional €2.5 million specifically for these issues to give an overall package of €4.5 million. We are looking at stocking rate effects on grazing, season lengths, nitrates leeching on vulnerable soil types, which is important in the Deputy's constituency, assessment of solid-liquid separation systems for pig manure and the influence of pig diet.

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