Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Maybe it is. Without actually saying anything, perhaps Mr. Donnellan can give us the answers. I see the Department as being very limited in what it is doing. It seems to be completely hung up on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. The next opportunity for anything to happen will be the new CAP in 2020. We should be making sure now we get the right environmental aspects into that CAP, and all aspects of the CAP, to ensure it responds to the problems we have discussed. If we do not do it then, it is going to be lost and we have to be realistic. The only time farmers are going to respond is within the CAP. Will Mr. Donnellan comment, insofar as he can, on how the Department deals with the research information it gets from Teagasc and how accepting it is of the role of Teagasc, because what Mr. Donnellan is saying is very useful and interesting?

On the graph Mr. Donnellan referred to earlier, in scenario one or two of those Mr. Donnellan said we should be examining, what would be the impact of a model where the herd was reduced by 500,000 along with that? What difference would that make and what would the impact be on farmers? That is a key consideration. In the context of my own work as a Deputy in Donegal, cattle farmers do not make money and they depend on social welfare to make an income. Farmers who keep sheep, however, do much better and there seems to be more money to be made from sheep, somewhat bizarrely. Could farmers change over from cattle to sheep? It seems that would have a positive impact on emissions and it is also a traditional type of farming that people are still involved in and know as well. How feasible is that?