Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome that response. It is comprehensive and, in fact, I am going to print it out from the Dáil record, keep it in my office and hold the Minister of State to account on it.

Of the things mentioned by the Minister of State, the river basin management plan is pivotal. He is correct that different areas are undergoing different pressures and some of the mapping that is done as part of the report is very useful on that. The other point the Minister of State makes that is very important is the idea of the right measure in the right place. The report points out that the soil type in a particular area very much influences run-off and how we should look at the nitrogen use that is going to be useful and effective on the land. Farmers have to pay big money to spread nitrogen on their land but analysts say only something like 25% of that makes it into the final product and the rest either ends up in our water courses or, more worrying still when we consider climate change, through volatilisation it ends up in our atmosphere, and it is a very potent greenhouse gas, as the Minister of State knows.

These interventions can be low-cost and high-effect, and even by changing the mix or changing the root profile of the grasses that the farmers are growing, we reduce their input costs, and just changing that root profile increases the amount of nitrogen that stays on the land. Setback distances from rivers are also a very low-cost but effective intervention. It even comes down to things like moving to protected urea rather than the usual nitrogen product. There definitely are solutions.

As the Minister of State said, the key stakeholders in all of this, the farmers, are absolutely ready to work with us on this but it is pivotal that we lead on this as a Government. We have seen declining water quality and it has an effect on our marine environments. We need to turn that around in a way that works for the environment and also for the people who are working on our farms.

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