Dr. Matthew Crowe:

I thank the committee for the invitation. I am happy to be able to help it with the deliberations on this important subject, to answer any questions as well as I can and to follow up as necessary with any information that the committee might need subsequently. I submitted three documents in advance to the committee, including the most recent state of the environment report of the EPA, the EPA's submission on Food Wise 2015, and a very recent report called the State of Knowledge on Climate Change Impacts for Ireland. We might come back to them during the discussion. I want to touch on a few key points from the submission. The first is the overall policy direction. I drew attention in the submission to two policies in particular, the longer term national policy objective for 2050 of an approach to carbon neutrality and the more immediate Food Wise 2025 strategy. Looking at the two together, the overall policy direction is clear, that farming, land management and food production must happen in harmony with the environment. The second point I wanted to make is that because of climate change, things have to change in agriculture, land management and food production, but these changes have to involve and have to work for farmers and rural communities, because they will have to implement these changes in the long run. The third point I wanted to make relates to carbon neutrality, which is a key part of the policy plank for climate change up to 2050. Currently, in Ireland, land is a net source of carbon dioxide. Land can either be a sink or a source of carbon dioxide. Forest land, for example, is a major sink. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and traps it.

That is something we will have to reverse over time. Our land should be a net sink, not a net source. Again, it is something to which we may return.

The fourth point is that, from now on, when we do anything in this area with regard to agriculture we should try to get multiple benefits for whatever actions are taken. It has to be good for the farmer, it must work for the bottom line and it must work for water quality, climate, nature and air. Many actions can be undertaken at farm level that can satisfy those different benefits.

Fifth, there are many very positive things happening and I have listed them in my submission. I draw the committee's attention to one in particular, which is the most recent one I could find and was in the national development plan that was published a couple of weeks ago. It is town-scale pilots of food and agricultural waste to gas in agricultural catchments for local gas networks supply and biogas production, and the piloting of climate smart countryside projects to establish the feasibility of the home and farm becoming net exporters of electricity. They are two potentially significant activities that could have a very positive impact for farmers, rural communities, towns and people living in single houses around the country. There are up to 500,000 such houses in Ireland.

The sixth point relates to adaptation. Mitigation means trying to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions into the atmosphere, but adaptation is equally important in Ireland. We learned the lesson again last weekend with the snow and we had Storm Ophelia just before Christmas. These events tell us that Ireland has many vulnerabilities to extreme weather events, and the climate change scientists, both international and national, tell us that we are likely to have more extreme weather events in the future. The issue is getting ready and being prepared to deal with the consequences of climate change.

Finally, I reiterate the point about involving, engaging and collaborating with farmers and rural communities. I cannot overemphasise the importance of this. It is about seeking the common ground on the things we can all agree are good for the environment, the economy and for society. There is plenty that can be done in this country which will work for the economy, society and environment, particularly in rural Ireland.