Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

The farming community has clearly told the Minister that everyone in the country, with the exception of a few city-based people who believe farmers are amadáns, opposes him. The Minister should deal with the spin that 20% of the water in this country is poor quality. This spin is based on the water report and uses 25 parts per million, which is illegal and not even the objective at the moment. The studies in question have been carried out on the basis of 50 parts per million and in that context, Ireland, Switzerland and Norway come first. Why has this spin been produced?

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is more responsible for the pollution of Irish water through the activities of local authorities and industrial waste than the farming community. Farmers are as concerned about the environment as anyone else. It is in their interest to be concerned about it because they and their families live and work in the country. They accept that there is a need for the environment to be safeguarded but not to the point where they are put out of business, which is what these regulations will do.

I do not wish to be personal because I wish to have a clean and honest argument tonight with the Minister. I appeal to him to listen to farm leaders and the people in rural Ireland before it is too late. He knows that these regulations are unworkable. An official from the Department, Mr. John Sadlier, who accompanied the Minister earlier this evening, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government that the regulations are not written in stone.