Dr. John Curtis:

I am the son of a farmer from the south east. Carbon sequestration in soil is not really my area. With regard to allowing it to be included in the targets, it has been a long slog on behalf of the scientists at the EPA to include sequestration from forestry. It would definitely be good to achieve that sequestration and we would benefit from it. In terms of stating farmers should not be given a subsidy for what they are already doing, the agricultural sector already accounts for one third of the emissions from the economy and anything that can be done to reduce this would be good. The ambition for agriculture at present in the mitigation plan is to have no growth in emissions whereas the other sectors have been asked to reduce emissions. If I understand the Senator correctly, I would not suggest there should be a subsidy for what is already being done. If additional services can be provided by farmers, landowners, Coillte or whoever and if they would provide a public good, then it makes sense to pay for them.