Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome what the Minister of State has said, but so long as there is no clear picture of what a revenue stream from sound environmental farming will mean in ten or 20 years' time, this uncertainty and unease will continue. We know, for example, that raising water levels on certain lands has huge carbon dividends. We know that benchmarking and reducing emissions by sequestration or altering methods can have very substantial dividends.

However, the Minister of State put her finger on it. We continue to be hidebound by data gaps. Is it not the case that at this point we need to just take a best endeavour approach to rewarding these changes? Okay, we may overpay some farmers but it is an important long-term national endeavour. I fear we are waiting for data that will never come, and we need a strategy that outlines a future before that point.

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