Results 781-800 of 1,039,033 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Cian O'Callaghan OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Johnny Guirke)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is all right. Dr. Cotter said "on an annual basis". Does she mean once a year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is the average?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is all right. I am throwing out a question to the witnesses. I presume the EPA has all the records of every plant in Ireland. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The records of the loads that are taken out and brought to another treatment plant. There is a flow meter. I will put it simply for anybody who understands sewerage. There is a flow meter in and a flow meter out. When you treat your sewage, you have a flow meter going out that indicates how many cubic metres have been let out and a flow meter going in that indicates how many cubic metres...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I take Mr. Byrne's point and thank him for answering. I am asking about the EPA's monitoring. Say I have a sewage treatment plant. It is like having a 100 horsepower tractor and a 200 horsepower tractor, to put it simply. Our witnesses will know what I am on about. For processing, one plant could be twice the size of another. Does the EPA know the amount of sewage that comes into the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I think there was one derogation farmer in Leitrim and he is gone. Based on reports, levels of phosphorous in Leitrim was high. Leitrim is covered in forestry. Was this the cause of it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am asking about the volume in cubic metres of raw sewage that is coming in to be sorted. In some cases, in fairness, the sewage is taken away by lorries and brought to a bigger plant. Does the EPA have that information? It would be worthwhile for the EPA to look through the records. It contradicts everything that I was brought up with that in wet weather, fewer loads are brought away...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am thinking of the likes of the derogation. Let us think of a scenario whereby every farmer puts every drop of water they have into a tank and never puts out slurry. Near me, in Ballymoe, County Galway, is one of the cleanest rivers - you can look it up - the Island River. There are monitoring stations along it. Unfortunately, a treatment plant was supposed to be done for the past seven,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I think it is four.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When it comes into the last phase, it gets into a bit of bother, although I know it is earmarked to be done up. When the EPA does its overall report, because that treatment plant has not been brought up to the specifications, does that bring down the good part? How does it work?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The Department of housing was in here and its representatives said the model Europe wants us to use is not the model it would use. Does the EPA have anything to say about that? My understanding is the EPA gets data about how many cattle are in an area and how many treatment plants or whatever. Has that modelling ever been looked at to see that it is accurate? Is there a different type of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It was peer-reviewed in journals.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I might come back on the plants. Does the EPA know the cubic metres coming in and going out for every plant?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am just looking at the witnesses' graphs. What does the second one mean?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On dredging, when grass and drains are blocked up and are blocking water and they are cleaned out, the water gets discoloured and dirty. Once they clean out, however, it is perfectly clear water. Are the witnesses saying that cleaning drains is a bad thing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When it is being taken up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Generally, when a small drain is being cleaned, you bring a bale of straw to put in to make sure that everything is soaked and it purifies in a way that will not damage the waters downstream. Would that be fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have another question relating to something the witnesses would have been involved in. At present, we are hearing about Ireland needing to meet targets such as planting another 500,000 ha of trees. That is written in every document I read. It will cause chaos on our water quality if it is the case that forestry is the third biggest contributor to nitrates. It is one thing pushing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: To be honest about it, though, and not being smart, there will be a drain or a river near any bit of forest planted.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I come from a farming background. No matter where you go now in Ireland, there is nowhere that planting trees will not result in run-off down to some drain or river. When people planted forestry one time, they did the mounding and there was a system where it took out all the material. It is delusional to think we are going to sow 500,000 ha of trees and still get better water quality. In...