Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said, there is an opportunity in the online form filling element for farmers and for us. I will give the Deputy a very clear commitment here. We constantly review how our systems work. This will be a really challenging year. The first year of a new CAP scheme, with all of the new IT systems, is very challenging for us. If we see a trend of a significant number of farmers all making the same mistake, we will amend, fix and intervene. I assure the Deputy that we constantly review this. We want farmers to be able to access the funds to which they are entitled and so on.

I could do with a lot more time to discuss the nitrates directive, but I will make one point. Farmers talk to us about the 250 kg limit as being their starting point. It is not. Our starting point is a 170 kg limit. We are very lucky in this country to be one of four countries that has this derogation, which is the rule that means we can operate at that higher nitrates level. There are conditions with that and one of the main conditions is that we cannot have a decline in water quality. Our water quality in Ireland is good by European standards but the trend in certain areas is declining. We will lose our derogation. Other European Union countries would give their right arm for that derogation. We know how important it is to the 7,000 farmers who avail of it in this country, so we are doing everything to maintain it. We do not want to make it any more difficult for farmers than it needs to be but we must see an improvement in our water quality. That is a key part of the whole derogation.

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