Joe Flaherty (Fianna Fail)

I was listening to "Morning Ireland" this morning. I think I should write to the director general of RTÉ and ask that, when EPA spokespersons are on, a health warning be given to the farming community. It was the EPA's latest dispatch on its water quality report for 2019 to 2024.If you were to listen to the radio, you would think that farmers are doing absolutely nothing in terms of water quality. Yet, from digging into the detail of the figure, particularly in relation to nitrate levels, they have reduced significantly, down 25% over that five-year period and 39% of rivers showing reduced nitrate concentration. Nitrate levels in our rivers overall are trending in the right direction. That is testament to the work done by farmers.

In the lifetime of the previous Government, I spent many frustrating hours in the agriculture committee. Every time the EPA came before the committee, it berated us and said the farming community was indeed the devil incarnate. Again, it trotted out that message this morning, saying that the lead perpetrator of this is the farming community. Everyone in the House knows how critical agriculture is to this country but, more importantly, how critical the nitrates derogation is and how important it is that we hold on to it. Discussions on that are imminent. I am perplexed that these latest water finding reports will be feeding into that. When the EPA was last before the committee during the previous Government, we asked it to do more contemporaneous reports. We are relying on figures from 2024 which do not take account of the work farmers have done over the past year. Alas, that ask fell on deaf ears.

I would like the Minister for agriculture to come in to update us on where we are. I know he was in the House last week, but I would like him to come in specifically regarding the nitrates directive and holding on to our derogation. It is critical not only for the farming community but for Ireland Inc. that we hold on to it. As a matter of urgency, I ask the Minister to come to the House to address that one specific point.