Dr. Tom Boland:

In response to the Deputy's question on people coming into agriculture, we have seen the number of agricultural science offerings in the institutes of technology, now the technological universities, and the university sector increase in recent years, yet we still see the same number of students coming into UCD, and the number entering agricultural education overall, is increasing. That is really important to service the sector. Professor O'Mara spoke about the research that is under way in Teagasc and in UCD to educate these new entrants into the agrifood sector about the sustainable practices and to highlight the good work that is being done. One of the strengths of our educational programmes in the university is that our teaching is research led, so we are conducting a teaching that will inform the education. Quite often that needs to be years or decades ahead of the actual policy. I remember Professor O'Mara in UCD 20 years ago. He was still a young fellow at that stage and he was working on methane emissions. It was probably unheard of at the time, but now it is the hot topic of conversation around livestock production in the country. In the research sector and the university sector, we need to plan ahead. Quite often, it is difficult to get the funds for that forward planning. At the moment, research is being conducted around adaptation to weather events, as the Deputy highlighted. How can we practise agriculture in a way that is resilient to enhanced rainfall or drought conditions? We have probably seen temporary droughts in four of the last five years, which can have serious impacts on the sustainability and the profitability of our dairy, beef, and sheep sectors. As an educational provider and a research conductor we need to be planning ahead all the time.