Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Boyle for coming before the committee. To follow the two previous speakers, I was wondering what Teagasc will do with regard to the IPCC report, which informed us that the climate is warming more rapidly than had been thought. How will the challenges facing agriculture be dealt with in our targets under Food Wise 2025? A number of us are also members of the climate action committee and we are being told that there should be more afforestation but many farmers are concerned about tying up good quality arable land in forestry.

Has Professor Boyle looked at models from other countries that might provide a suitable solution, rather than tying up many acres with it? It might be possible, for example, to plant 1 acre on a particular farm.

I was very interested to see that uptake in respect of the adult distance education green certificate has really increased. Is that a particular course that was designed to be pursued online? Over 1,000 people nationally have signed up to do it.