Mr. Oisín Coghlan:

Yes. I am sure members have already heard a great deal on the point about efficiency and carbon intensity and I am sure they will hear a great deal more about it. From an atmospheric point of view, however, it is an irrelevant term. The atmosphere does not recognise efficiency or intensity. All it recognises is absolute emissions. Those are what count. Therefore, if one wants to increase overall emissions, that is a choice one must make at the expense of something else. For example, according to the CSO, there were 6.67 million cattle in Ireland at the end of December. This represents 750,000 more than there were at the end of December 2011. That is a choice one must make if one wants to continue down that path, but it will have to be at the expense of something else, and it is for the committee to decide on those priorities.

As for the leakage argument, unfortunately, national sovereign governments are the units which must operate in this field.

It would be nice if we had sectoral allocations globally but unfortunately that is not going to happen. If we wanted to use the argument that we are more efficient at producing beef the Germans would use the argument they are more efficient at producing cars and the Italians would use the argument they are more efficient at producing olive oil. We would end up in a very difficult situation. This reminds us that we have to take responsibility for our own actions.

In addition to the number of cattle, we are exceeding our national emissions ceiling for ammonia. How long we will be allowed to do that by the Commission is not clear, but that is a choice the committee has to make in terms of where it wants to take the country. I remind committee members there is an envelope that must be maintained, which is the absolute amount of emissions and not intensity efficiency or anything else. It is the amount of emissions with which we can meet our obligations.