DEAR EDITOR: Over the past number of months, I have sat idle in my yard with hundreds of thousands of euro worth of slurry kit, watching several contractors in my locality spread slurry for farmers, some of them my clients, where I have taken the decision not to spread slurry during the closed period.

I have not only lost business from my customers during the closed spreading period, but I now find myself unable to service my customers, such is the demand for slurry spreading in the first week of the open season.

Meanwhile, other contractors who have been spreading slurry during the winter months have the capacity to now take on more work and more of my customers.

I was appalled to hear recently that suggestions are afoot to apply a new licensing system for contractors to spread slurry.

We don’t need new rules – all we need to do is apply the rules we have and things would be a lot better for everybody.

In my opinion, the authorities want to bury their heads in the sand, as this is too big of a problem to take on.

Anybody driving through the countryside during the day or night over the last month in the northwest will have seen slurry being spread where it shouldn’t have been. It’s not hard to see.

Why are there not more inspections and sanctions on these contractors and farmers?

Apply the rules we have first, before we start making new ones.