Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a question on the accounting methodologies used. At the last meeting we were told that the carbon footprint of the beef sector is the lowest in Europe. Ms O'Shea has said that only New Zealand is ahead of us. How do we take something like that into consideration? We have to use a methodology to recognise that here and to push it when accounting methodologies are being analysed and implemented in the EU. How do we take that into consideration?

We have read that the Mediterranean countries will be reducing agriculture production because climate change will not be conducive to such production, whereas our country will remain sustainable for agricultural production. One can see that the demand from outside might increase and we need to balance that. We have no control over the sun. So the European Union must engineer its policies and we have to take into consideration how climate change will affect food production.

There was mention of bio-methane and bio-gas. I do not see the industry driving anaerobic digestion. In the North of Ireland there are 600 anaerobic digesters in six counties. I believe we have four in 26 counties. The farming industry has the basic raw material for anaerobic digestion sitting on its doorstep. Do the witnesses have a comment on the area? I would like the witnesses to say more about it.

What is the view of the witnesses on emissions trading as a means of allocating emission rights to efficient producers on a pan-European level?