Ms Angela Robinson:

We have liaised with the EPA on that to seek further breakdown, but it is not available at present. To clarify, the estimate is 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As I said, the food waste prevention roadmap provides for research on the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions, direct and indirect, associated with food waste generation and the emissions savings resulting from the implementation of food waste reduction measures in Ireland.

What the action says is that this can inform the development of climate-related metrics in respect of food waste prevention in Ireland. Therefore, it is a key action of the food waste prevention roadmap that we will be driving as part of a task force to make sure that this research is undertaken and the data are available because we all agree how necessary this is. It was clear from the discussions in the previous committee meeting with stakeholders how important the data are and the importance of having that research and doing that collection of data. As our colleagues in Teagasc mentioned, they are looking at data in respect of the horticulture sector. It has been a significant difficulty given that this sector is the biggest area as regards food waste. That is one of the areas on which the task force for the food waste prevention roadmap is trying to focus to see how we can introduce methodologies to collect that. The EPA-funded research by Drs. Attard and O’Connor has been significantly useful to us in that regard. It is a significant piece of work. It is available for everybody to see on the EPA website and it gives really useful insights into the reasons for food loss and food waste. This includes food loss before and after it leaves the farm - behind the farm gate if we can put it that way - and the reasons. That is something at which we are looking as part of the implementation of the roadmap to see what lessons are learned from that research. There are a lot of data there we can use and build on and try to have a more structured approach to the data going forward so we can do these things like measure the greenhouse gas emissions. We also need to identify the gaps and the reasons why this food waste and food loss is happening. There has been a lot of talk about different reasons such as disease levels that affect the way the production practices are managed along with the specifications from the supermarkets.