Ms Bridget Murphy:

The Senator asked about rethinking how we feed the world and what Government supports are available and if there are any data available. We said, in our longer document, that the INHFA approach will be led by common sense, as opposed to more sophisticated agricultural models because neither the support nor the research are there. That is not to say the science and technology are not important to our approach, however making the right choices about what we are facing requires wisdom and vision for future values and the fact that we choose to care more about the farm and the environment etc. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of research into the complex socioecological systems underpinning agriculture in Ireland and we need to proceed on that basis with common sense.

Deputy Eamon Ryan made a suggestion earlier, when Mr. Donnellan was speaking, about land use and in some senses a lot of research needs to be done in that area because it is quite critical to start understanding exactly what we are working with within ecosystems, rather than firing ahead with what we have. Traditionally the practice has been to get the pH up and throw a bunch of fertiliser at it and make something out of that land. That might work very well on lower land where there are more established grass systems, but for us, up in the high nature value areas, throwing a whole bunch of lime at a mountain is not going to make much difference and we certainly do not throw a huge amount of fertiliser up there.

Essentially, we need much more research. We called for that as well, saying that we would like to see a lot more research undertaken on land use and management in the upland and designated areas. It is an area that needs more exploring. Traditionally, we have got where we are because the research has been focused on a different angle. Perhaps we need that spotlight to shift and it really starts with understanding what land we have, what can be produced from it, where is the best place to locate certain things and move on from there.