During last week's flying visit to Ireland, the EU environmental Commissioner ruled out any movement on nitrates reduction in this country. This was astonishing given that in my constituency, the leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil came to west Cork to meet farmers who had ticked all the boxes environmentally, thereby leaving them with hope of some movement. These farmers and others were keeping thousands of in-calf heifers throughout west Cork and elsewhere in the country in the expectation of at least an extension of the derogation deadline. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians continued to offer hope in west Cork until the hammer blow from the Commissioner last week. He stated clearly that no one in Europe should hold out any hope for movement on this issue in Ireland. He said there was never any such hope. The Commissioner would not even visit a farm due to his frustration. I have since been inundated with calls from farmers in west Cork who are set to lose tens of thousands of euros. A text I received earlier said that a farmer has already lost €20,000 due to keeping in-calf heifers on false promises. A politician in west Cork said some time back that compensation packages would be put in place for these farmers. Will the Minister announce when a compensation package will be put in place for farmers who will have to cull thousands of animals? What are the terms of the compensation package?

I thank the Deputy. As he knows, this is an issue on which I have been working for a significant period. The derogation is massively important to our dairy sector and is particularly important to many Cork farmers, given the strength of the dairy sector there. The Taoiseach and I invited the Commissioner to come to Ireland to fully assess the great work that farmers are doing. He came last Thursday and met all the key farming stakeholders. He was once again clear, as he has been since my meeting with him in early September, that it is not possible to change the derogation we have. That means a number of farmers have to drop to 220 kg N/ha this coming January. A massive effort is now required of all of us to ensure we hold to that derogation and ensure it is renewed. I will work in every way possible to support farmers to do that. In the recent budget, I announced up to 70% grant aid for storage facilities to aid the transfer of slurry. I also announced a separate ceiling under TAMS grant aid for farmers to increase slurry storage.