Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have a fixed amount of land, which is decreasing as good agricultural land is being built on. The storms also added to the loss of land.

From the figures for output, it seems that by increasing cattle number, one increases methane gas. If the ratio is 21:1, I would be interested to hear how the EPA proposes to deal with the dilemma with Harvest 2020. Do different types of cattle produce different levels of methane gas? Is there a genetic issue with different breeds? What affects the output of methane gas from cattle? Is there anything we can do to produce the same amount of beef yet generate less methane? It would be a major boon if one could do that. If it were possible to do that, should it become part of the genomic scheme and part of the measure when doing DNA testing?

If we are to put more and more cattle on the land and try to offset the methane gas by forestry or other sinks, what is the ratio per hectare, allowing that one is putting CO2 in and generating methane gas when one has cattle. Is it a big disadvantage that so much of our agriculture is based on animal production rather than on tillage?

Has the EPA a measure of whether the normal 80:20 rule that seems to apply to everything in life applies to greenhouse gases so that 80% of methane and greenhouse gases is generated by 20% of the farmers? If one concentrated one's efforts on reducing their output, it would have a disproportionate effect and one would not need to get to the very extensive farmers who in the greater scheme of things are probably generating very small amounts. Is it a question of having to focus on those in intensive farming and to work with them on the factors that could mitigate the output of greenhouse gases? Am I correct that 20% of farmers produce 80% of the output? In other words of the 120,000 farmers, do the top 30,000 farmers produce 80% of the net greenhouse gases?