We have nationally pretended that there is no problem with sewage sludge in Ireland. Yet the Bord Bia quality assurance schemes have limits on how recently it can be applied if the land used produces grass or cereals intended for food or drinks.

Meanwhile some specific manufacturers are very clear in their contracts issued to farmers that the use of sewage sludge is not allowed. It is right that Irish Water (Uisce Éireann) is launching a public consultation on what the national strategy for “bio resources” should be.

It is, in my view, extraordinary that the Environmental Protection Agency has, up to now, had no role in this area but has left it to the local authorities to run the sewage disposal programmes within their own areas.

Now is the time to develop a national sewage disposal strategy that is fit for purpose for a major food exporting country. So where can we look to as an example?

The Netherlands is a particularly good example as a major food exporter and densely populated. The Dutch banned spreading sewage sludge on farmland because of concerns over heavy metals, micro-plastics and pharmaceutical residues.

The vast bulk of Dutch sewage is incinerated in a dedicated facility and the heat is captured to produce electricity and heat. The valuable phosphorus is used as a raw material in the cement industry or extracted as a pure mineral and used as a fertiliser.

Switzerland has the same approach as the Netherlands and was the first country to completely ban its use on farm land.

Ireland has an ideal opportunity to adopt the same approach. There is already a large incinerator beside Irish Water’s treatment plant at Poolbeg in Dublin Bay.

We have large, sophisticated cement works and our very large international pharmaceutical industry sends much of its waste abroad for disposal which is costly, inefficient and vulnerable to disruption.

The present system of disposal is hugely unsatisfactory from a variety of points of view.

Nobody pretends that the solution will be cost free but now is the time to examine best practice and put in place a regime that our food and pharmaceutical industries can stand behind with their future safeguarded.