Farmers need certainty in their businesses, like any other business. The change to the nitrates derogation, which is going from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha, was announced last September but farmers, both dairy and beef, had to have their animals impregnated and their cows and heifers in calf before then. Now they face a situation where they are going to have to slaughter these in-calf animals, which is wilful and totally wrong. It is obscene and grotesque. I am asking that the deadline be extended to allow farmers to at least have their production line, to have their calves born this year as normal, as they expected to be able to do when they put the animals in calf. It is shocking, especially in light of the world food situation, that we would be destroying our animals here. In fairness to farmers, they need certainty. As I said, when they made decisions about next year's animals, they had no notion that the derogation was going to be changed and that they would have to cull these cows or have them slaughtered in a factory. This is a shocking situation.

I have met a lot of farmers on this issue for the best part of a year now and I understand the impact it is going to have on thousands of farms around the country. At our invitation, Commissioner Sinkevičius is coming to Ireland on Thursday. The Minister for agriculture, Deputy McConalogue, and I will have a chance to meet him and we will explore any flexibilities that might be available to us that might help farmers to make this transition but I do not want to raise expectations as to what is possible and what is not. The EU law is clear and the rules are clear, as are the derogation and the nitrates directive. They are not easily changed but we will explore any flexibilities that might help farmers.