Mr. John Spink:

I thank Mr. Hennessey for leaving me with the question on whether beet was viable. If we could re-establish a viable beet industry we, as an organisation, would very much welcome it as it is a very good break crop and has benefits for cereals and rotation. We have done some work over the past couple of years with Beet Ireland and looked at the yield potential of new sugar beet varieties since the industry stopped ten or more years ago and there has been a big increase in the yield potential of beet in that time, with improved varieties, etc. That is certainly a positive but the world price of sugar is currently relatively low, at some €350 per tonne. A lot of the predictions of four years ago envisaged between €500 and €600. We would welcome the return of the beet industry if there were defined markets for Irish beet as this would reduce volatility but re-establishing an industry while exposed to the fluctuations of world prices would make any of us a bit nervous.

I was also asked about eucalyptus. I do not know of any work done recently on eucalyptus but some was done a good few years ago and there was a biomass programme at Oak Park for many years. Professor Boyle reminded me that research from a number of years ago found that it was susceptible to low temperatures and some of it was lost during very cold winters. This is less the case with willow or miscanthus and these are the biomass crops that have been looked at in recent years.