Professor John Sweeney:

I cannot help the committee too much with methane sequestration. Many years ago, when we were trying to get the split between tier 1 and tier 2 on the reporting of methane, we sent cattle with nosebags around the place to capture methane but it is not really feasible to try to capture methane for grass-fed cattle that are out in the open. There may be some test cases of doing so in barns or in milking parlours, but I am not aware of any substantial efforts in this area. I may be mistaken.

Ethanol is a great fuel if we can produce it commercially. Brazil is the market leader in this area and powers a lot of its transport with ethanol from sugar cane. I do not think we have the resources in Ireland to do that without using up valuable land which would otherwise be producing food.

Similarly there are bio-diesel plants in Hungary at the moment. They are not in Ireland and I think the same issue exists as to what kind of feed stock we would use for them. I cannot help the committee too much, I am afraid.