Mr. John Muldowney:

As Mr. McKiernan has highlighted, we are working towards being carbon neutral. Teagasc is working on a qualitative roadmap of possible scenarios, as opposed to actual figures. Post-2020 Teagasc thinks that a range of these options will be adopted.

There are many new technologies. For agriculture, carbon neutrality will not mean zero, but half of the current emissions. Unfortunately, the accounting only includes emissions from our significant cattle herd. We are trying to match that figure with the potential sinks, for example, forestry and permanent grass. Our research programme is trying to develop our understanding of the carbon pools and sinks in grassland. The EU's decision has set out a framework for all member states to try to improve their understanding of grassland and cropland accounting ahead of a post-2020 system.