Ms Laura Burke:

On the urban-rural divide, it is an issue of which we all need to be conscious. I am from Dublin but I have been living in the countryside for the last 14 years. It is very different in terms of public transport and in many other areas and this needs to be recognised. When one finds oneself giving out about Dubs, etc., one knows one has gone native and there is no going back.

On the numbers, emissions from agriculture are now 2.4% below what they were in 1990. The numbers overall of dairy and non-dairy cattle are similar to what they were in 1990. Sheep numbers have halved. Emissions have increased in four out of the last five years. I would be very surprised if they do not increase again, which is the warning signal from us. As I said, emissions increased in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. This is data to support policy. We are not the policymakers. What we are seeing is that the fluctuations in agriculture emissions are underpinned by higher animal numbers.