Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

That is encouraging. There are many big decisions coming up that the report could inform. It is there to inform future climate action plans, some of which we have been looking at and reviewing recently at the climate committee. It strikes me it is also relevant to the nitrates derogation negotiations. It seems, based on leaks from the report, that there is talk of intensification of dairy farming in the south east of the country, where we already have huge water quality issues. We have previously discussed the issues around Lady's Island Lake this year. It is also relevant to the housing plan that will be published later this month by the Minister's colleague, the housing Minister, in terms of how and where we build, the push for councils to rezone around the country and the potential for urban sprawl where there is ad hoc building on land as farmers sell it up.

It strikes me that the sooner this report is released and worked on the better because there are a lot of big decisions at the moment that will be informed by it.

See this speech in context