Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements. Much of the discussion has, naturally enough, focused on farming and agriculture, due to the issues around that. As the witnesses clearly outlined, it is the largest area we need to try to deal with. I come from the Sligo-Leitrim constituency and nitrates are not the issue for the vast majority of farmers in that area. They are low intensity suckler farmers with a few sheep on the mountains.

It does not really impact them at all. That said, there are issues regarding pollution in our waterways. One of the most significant problems is forestation. Large areas of Leitrim are forestry. It is mainly Sitka spruce. We have many issues with pollution.

The witnesses pointed out the various sectors and the different parts they play in all of this. I recently spoke at length to a retired person who worked in a local authority as an environmental inspector for many years. He told me that, at one time in a large town in the area, there was a breakdown in the sewage treatment system for a couple of months. He said it caused more pollution in those couple of months than there had been with years and years of one-off houses and anything else, because there was such a concentration.

The witnesses mentioned targeted measures and that the one-size-fits-all approach does not or will not deliver what we need. They said we need to look at specific parts of the country and what the issues may be. For instance, County Meath, County Clare or other counties may have different issues that need to be dealt with. The fundamental thing for me is that we need to come up with solutions that are targeted. Most of those targeted solutions will require investment. Senator Dooley spoke about sewage treatment systems. In my area, there is one area near the River Shannon close to where drinking water is extracted from the Shannon where a community is trying to get a group scheme put in for a water treatment system to take away 50 septic tanks in that area. They have been trying to get approval for years and cannot get it. That is one of the big issues. I feel that while we have all this pressure to do things better, at the same time we need resources to do them better. Unless we can find a way of putting pressure on to get those resources in place, we will be dealing with this problem for a very long time.

I appreciate that the witnesses, from what I can hear, are stating what the problems are and where the source of the nitrates or pollutants may be, but how much of the prescription for dealing with that do the witnesses get into?