Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues in the Dáil have spoken at length about some of the issues of concern they have with this legislation. It is interesting because I worked on the One Health strategy when I was an MEP and one of the things it highlights is the length of time it takes for EU legislation to make its way to national level. There is also the conversation we are having here about the importance of when the EU decides on a direction of travel, where it is important that member states are able to design how that regulation will be then implemented at the member state level. When I was working on the One Health strategy, the other thing was how serious antimicrobial resistance is and how little attention it gets in mainstream media. No matter how much you tried to convince newspapers to cover it at the time, they had no interest whatsoever. It is not just an agricultural issue; this is an issue that affects public health. It also affects our business in terms of our being a food producing nation. We absolutely need this legislation and we need to do so much more collectively at the EU level to fight against antimicrobial resistance. It is well documented that we are running out of new antibiotics for human use and increasingly bacterial infections are becoming resistant to the antibiotics we have. We have to admit, however, that we are very fortunate in Ireland as to the standard of food production we have but also at a wider EU level, we have far superior animal husbandry and veterinary practices than many other countries across the world. Irish and EU citizens are beneficiaries of that and of the farm to fork strategy, something that is the envy of citizens in America and in Canada.

I worked closely on the One Health strategy and when we talked to our counterparts in America, they would say that idea of animal husbandry and getting it right all along the food chain, the traceability, and the administration of medicines to livestock is so important. They would point to the fact that farmers were able to administer drugs to entire herds in their country. They would point to the fact that the use of chlorination was a way of overcoming the farm to fork strategy. It did not matter how the poultry was reared. Once it was dipped in chlorine at the end process, it was fit for human consumption. Something we raised again in our opposition to TETip, CETA, and Mercosur was just how important it is that in regard to the standards we have fought so hard for, and farmers have had to make sacrifices to come up to that standard, we do not undermine them by doing trade with countries that have far inferior food and animal husbandry standards. I worked closely with the Canadian non-governmental organisation, NGO, Food & Water Watch, on that very issue.

As some said, the other element of this legislation is the national fertiliser database. It is essential that we monitor the application of fertilisers. It was only late last week that the EPA produced a report that showed there has been no improvement in water quality. It has very clearly stated that it is agricultural practices that is causing the deterioration and the lack of progress on our water quality. It pointed to Uisce Éireann as well but was very clear that we need to change our agricultural practices if we want to bring our water quality up. This means reducing fertiliser use is very much part of that process of improving the water quality but it is also vital in tackling both our climate and ammonia emissions.

One thing that was flagged by my colleagues in the Dáil was that it is unfortunate that the database will not be an all-Ireland database. Our rivers and our ground water do not recognise borders. Likewise, we know that every single day people, including farmers, go between the two jurisdictions to buy products and to avail of services.

The other area of concern, which has been touched on by many Members in the Houses, is around the use of data in this database and the concerns farmers, and others such as the horticultural sector, have about the purpose of the data and what it will be used for and who will hold the data. It is good to hear the Minister say that he has had reassurances from the Data Regulator but questions still remain on that.

I look forward to engaging with the Minister on Committee and Report Stages. We will probably bring amendments forward to address some of the concerns which were flagged with him in the Dáil.