Mr. Trevor Donnellan:

I will begin by clarifying the Deputy's interpretation of a comment I made earlier in answer to Deputy Deering. I said, specifically, that dairy farming was highly profitable. That is not the only form of farming in Ireland that involves cattle and it is actually the minority. There are about 17,000 farmers in Ireland who would describe themselves as dairy farmers. Most cattle in Ireland are on what we call cattle farms, either suckler farms or farms that specialise in bringing cattle to a finishing age for slaughter. In a broad sense, those cattle farms are not particularly profitable. I agree with Deputy Bríd Smith on that. Cattle farms tend to be smaller than dairy farms and some of them, historically, were dairy farms. The change from dairy production came about because it was found that the work involved was too arduous or the farm was too small to provide an income. Many of those cattle farmers also have off-farm employment as well. Some of them certainly are limited in their income sources while for others the agricultural income is only one source of income and their spouse may be working or they may be working off-farm themselves. There are also some farms where the income from agriculture is the only income source and it is not very large. I agree those are the farms in acute difficulty from an income perspective.

Having said that, we have many cattle farms in this country. It is difficult to see how we can address the issue of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions without involving all of the farmers in this country who have cattle on their farms, whether those are dairy cows or beef animals. While cattle farms do not generate as many emissions as dairy farms, there are many more of them than dairy farms. If it is left to the dairy sector alone to resolve the issue of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, then there is not going to be a very satisfactory outcome.

I am open to correction on this, but I believe we met the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association only about three or four weeks ago in our offices in Athenry in County Galway. The question on afforestation is interesting. In the ordinary run of things with the Common Agricultural Policy, if we are going to spend money on any new or different scheme, such as the one suggested involving an annual payment just to have trees existing indefinitely on farms, then the money for that has to come from somewhere. The same applies in respect of increasing the level of money spent on such a scheme. In that context, the money probably has to come from somewhere else within the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy envelope available to Ireland. There are options available where the State can co-fund schemes to some degree.

That is one of the first difficulties. If farmers were asked tomorrow whether they would like money for planting trees they would say "yes". If they were told, however, that it was just going to be a reallocation of money they are already receiving for doing other things, then there might not be the same interest.