Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

I will begin by responding to the Deputy's second question, which relates to beef genomics. I cannot give him an exact figure for the impact of the scheme. The statement we have made in this respect is regarded at EU level as very significant. We have said we think we can achieve the Food Harvest 2020 targets in this country while maintaining our emissions at approximately the same level as 2005. We will achieve that largely through measures such as beef genomics. We are trying to urge other measures through the carbon navigator, including activities such as lengthening the grazing season, improving cow fertility and slaughtering at an earlier age. The quality of the animal is crucial to that.

The Deputy is absolutely right in his characterisation of this when he says it is about converting grass into beef more efficiently and therefore being able to slaughter the animal at an earlier stage. That is exactly what it is about. The happy coincidence in this regard is that there is an absolute correlation here between economic efficiency and environmental efficiency. That is why we see this as a major thing to pursue. The committee will be well aware of the criticism we get from some environmental groups in this country and elsewhere regarding the emissions from our population of beef cattle. We have to show we are doing the absolute best we can on that. At the same time, our beef industry has the problem of profitability at farm level. We can kill two birds with one stone by doing what we are doing.

The Deputy also raised the question of double funding. We can never double fund, as such. The change made as part of the new CAP is that the requirement not to double fund has been included in several places all over the regulations. I remember well that this was done at the insistence of the European Parliament. It insisted during the regulations that we include this in each of the regulations even though it was already contained in the overarching financial regulation and therefore was not needed.

They insisted that we include it in every regulation. It is now much more explicit, but a ban on double funding has always been in place. The original Burren project was the BurrenLife project, which was a bit different. The current Burren project will be under the programme. It is caught by the provision.