Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

Farmers are on that journey already in a variety of ways, particularly in the area of water quality. Requirements include the need for Ireland, as outlined during the summer, to conduct environmental assessments to address the habitats directive at catchment level in order to demonstrate compliance with the directive. This is a massive undertaking. It will require significant investment of time and resources to complete these assessments for all 583 catchments. That is why the Commission has agreed to propose a three-year derogation to facilitate the completion of this work. The issue with time was something I continuously raised. Four years is the maximum time allowable under that, and we looked for the maximum. There was very much a desire for much less time to be given but we had to clearly outline, based on the science, how much time the process would take, both to be fair and to allow our farmers to work through that process and to allow the Department to assess those 583 catchments. That is very onerous and there are other conditionalities too. I want to be fair to all stakeholders and Government colleagues by briefing them properly. The stakeholders have been very constructive in their engagement throughout this process.

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