Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We know the cost of the fodder crisis was somewhere around €900 million. If the herd grows between now and 2020, which is expected with Food Harvest 2020, and such a situation arose again in 2020, has Teagasc quantified the size of the cattle herd and the scale of the potential losses? In the absence of the EU agreeing to agriculture being treated differently on a European-wide as opposed to a national basis, has the IFA a plan B for protecting its members? What is the strategy?

Will greater fertiliser usage be required to grow the food for an increasing herd? Would we require a derogation from the nitrates directive if that was the case? In respect of the EU roadmap to 2050, has Teagasc modelled the percentage of emissions beyond 2020 and up to 2030, 2040 and 2050? If it has modelled them on that basis, what mechanism did it use? Did it use the IPCC accounting mechanism, has it carried out dual modelling or is that something that will be published in the report at the end of the year?