I welcome our visitors to the Gallery. The European Commission has just raised the bar for Irish farmers when it comes to compliance with the nitrates directive. The intervention by Europe is welcome because successive Governments have failed to protect our river bodies.

Successive Governments have failed to protect our river bodies, lakes and estuaries. In the 1980s, there were 500 pristine river bodies in this country. We are now down to 20, so we can see the scale of the problem. The reality is the changes will be very difficult to farmers to comply with. I argue they will be near impossible. There is a responsibility on the Government to ensure that farmers are supported to make this change. What is the transition plan? We need to take our heads out of the sand. The reality is …

A Cheann Comhairle-----

-----it is absolutely unacceptable for the Taoiseach to say that.

I want to support farmers but the reality is-----

-----you have wrecked our water bodies, Taoiseach. You have wrecked them.

You have failed to protect them.

The Government is failing farmers and failing the environment.

Will the Minister direct the Marine Institute to undertake a formal stock assessment of sprat, with a view to identifying a total allowable catch, and will he make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State. Sprat is not economically important. It is quite a low-value fishery but it is ecologically valuable. Everything feeds on it, from fish, whales and dolphins to seabirds. If we do not have sprat, we do not have those other species. Unfortunately, we are in a situation where, because it has not been deemed economically valuable enough, we do not have stock assessments. There has not been a TAC conducted on sprat. That is now causing huge problems because we do not have sufficient data t…

I ask the Minister of State to provide some information on the point that process has reached. I am interested in hearing when a decision will be made. The reality is that, in the absence of data, the fundamental approach to take with any stock is the precautionary principle. That essentially means working on a risk-averse basis. We are not doing that at the moment, and it is important we do. Depending on the outcome of the Minister of State's consultation and decision, I am very concerned that even with that decis…

The establishment of the Agri-Food Regulator was a very welcome move but the body clearly does not have sufficient teeth. The regulators themselves have requested additional powers. When will the body be granted additional powers of compellability and could the Minister make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister. It is welcome that he is in the process of granting or providing the powers but we need to see a timeline. It has been quite a while since the regulators themselves raised the gaps in their powers and it is important that we see movement on this, particularly given how grocery prices are increasing at present. Members of the public need transparency when purchasing products so they will know where their money is going. There also needs to be fairness for producers. The risk – I think this is w…

In providing the additional powers, is the Minister considering the likes of the large supermarkets and their profits? Obviously, we have a cost-of-living crisis and food prices are rising continually, and farmers are continuing to get less and less for their produce. One of the pieces of the data jigsaw that is missing concerns how much supermarkets are making in this country. Supermarkets must provide their data publicly in the UK, but when they have an Irish arm they have no obligation to provide the associated …

Can the Minister outline the Department’s plans to deal with bovine TB, which he spoke about earlier, and particularly his approach to badger culling and badger vaccination as part of that?

I do not think anyone is underestimating or minimising the absolute devastation when a farmer realises they have TB in their herd. As the Minister says, it is not just a financial but also an emotional shock and trauma for the family. The most important thing to do is put in place a system that is going to work for them. The Minister talks about being led by science. I cannot see any definitive scientific evidence to show that badgers are responsible for the spread of TB. Actually, it is the opposite. In 2022 Engla…

I would be really keen if the Minister could send me the studies and evidence that show transmission of TB from badgers to cattle and the incidence. If a badger has TB that is not a good thing for the badger, but the Department culled nearly 7,500 badgers last year and 20% of them had TB. The culling involves snares which not only is an incredibly inhumane way for an animal to die but it is not targeted. It also kills dogs, lambs, and foxes, where they have been disemboweled or have had to chew their own leg off to…

When will the Government get its act together and level with parents and students? It has been five days since the higher education Minister took to the airways and dropped the bombshell that parents and students will have to find another €1,000 to fund college before September. He did not try to sugar-coat that news; it was quite the opposite. He said, "All of us in any walk of life have to play the hands we are dealt." It was utterly galling and incredibly tone deaf; a member of Government actively stacking the d…

The Minister is clearly not listening to what I am saying and, what is worse, he is clearly not listening to what parents and students are saying at the moment. They believed the Government when it said in the programme for Government that it would continue to reduce student fees. They believed it when it said that. It could not be any simpler. The question is this. Is the Government going to keep its promise or is it going to break its promise? That is the question for the Minister. Will parents be paying €2,000 i…

The Taoiseach does it constantly.