Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their contributions. I have two questions before I hand over to members. Can the officials from the Department comment on why Ireland has been granted such a significant allowance of 4% for the transfer of credits from the emissions trading system sector to the non-emissions trading sector? I understand Luxembourg is the only other country in this category.

This country's afforestation policy is based on the working assumption that the high-level and projected increase in emissions from livestock can be offset by afforestation. This is not accepted by some groups, including Environmental Pillar and Stop Climate Chaos. They argue that this assumption is scientifically flawed because the offset is just a fraction of the fossil fuel emissions. It would be interesting to get feedback from the representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency or the views of any of the other witnesses on this issue. It would be great if we could get comments on the issues I have raised after Deputies Stanley and Dooley have asked their questions.