Dr. Eimear Cotter:

Certainly there are exemplary practices and good practices that we need to talk about. We need to share the learnings from them and highlight where farming practices are working with the environment. When we look at the sector overall, which is what we do in the EPA, we can see that the agricultural sector has expanded and grown at the expense of the environment. That is an overall picture, looking at greenhouse gas emissions, water quality and ammonia emissions. As the Deputy highlighted, there are good examples around the country where farmers work with the environment. We have to make sure farmers are rewarded for that. Results-based payments, performance-based payments and so on would incentivise farmers to do the right thing. We are supportive of that.