Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That leads to my next question, which is about lag time. The EPA said earlier that it could be six months to a year before results would be seen in water from actions taken. I would like to get an idea of the timing going back to the derogation. What EPA report will be used in Brussels when the D day call about whether we get the derogation is made and when will the testing for the report have been done?

There are three lag times. In 2026, will Brussels be working on a 2024 report, which reports tests from 2023, although we have taken a whole lot of reduction measures under ACRES? We could be going into the meeting that decides whether we get a derogation and we could be working off 2022 or, at best 2023, data, with no allowance made for all the measures taken in 2022. The EPA stated it can take six months to a year, so what was done in 2022 will not have shown up in 2023 and if the tests the report is based on were done in 2023, it could be 18 months or two years down the line and a whole lot more measures may have been taken. I want to get an idea of what report will be on the table on D day when the decision will be made on the derogation and when the testing will be done for it.