Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will provide all legally relevant documentary evidence that the European Union institutions are of the view that S.I. 788 of 2005 wholly or partly transposes the nitrates directive into Irish law and therefore fulfils either wholly or partly Ireland's EU obligations in respect of transposing that directive; if S.I. 788 of 2005 purports wholly or partly to transpose the nitrates directive into Irish law; if partly, the other legislation which, either passed or to be passed, is necessary to transpose wholly the nitrates directive into Irish law; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5993/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The implementation of the nitrates directive is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Following difficult and intense negotiations with the European Commission, the Minister, Deputy Roche, made regulations on 11 December 2005 giving legal effect to Ireland's national action programme under the nitrates directive.

The need for the action programme and the regulations arises from the directive itself, which imposes specific obligations on all member states of the European Union to protect waters against pollution from agricultural sources. In 2004, a judgment of the European Court of Justice held Ireland to be in breach of the directive by failing to implement a nitrates action programme. Failure by Ireland to address the situation would have resulted in an application from the Commission to the court to have very substantial daily fines imposed.

I am not aware of documents as described by the Deputy.