John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

Some 10,000 dairy farmers use large amounts of nitrogen, and probably must do so. However, they are being squeezed so much economically — to say nothing of science — that they will have to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use for purely economic reasons.

I have been involved in this business for a long time and numerous efforts were made over the years to predict what would be required by crops in terms of nitrogen and phosphates. Those efforts were made internationally in climates much more predictable than others. We know what a ten tonne crop of wheat will reduce in the soil. That is straightforward. However, we do not know what the soil will contribute to the crop. That depends on the climate and a whole host of factors. It is an extremely difficult thing to predict.

Teagasc has been unjustly vilified in this regard. Over the years I, and thousands of people in this country, have benefited enormously from the advice of Teagasc and its predecessor, ACOT. It contributes immeasurably to the welfare of farming in this country and that should not be forgotten. It should not be used as a political football to prove a point. That is wrong and should not happen.

There is another error in this motion and it comes back to the original charge made against the Minister. At the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs on 15 February, the president of the Irish Farmers Association said he accepted a nitrates directive must be implemented. I regarded that statement as so significant that I wrote it down at the time and welcomed it when it came to my intervention.