Mr. Joe Healy:

I take what the Deputy is saying but my information is that it is not comparing dairy production with dairy production. It is comparing other types of production of protein with the production of dairy protein. When we compare dairy with dairy, we are the most carbon efficient. That should be the real measure. We should not be talking about 33% of emissions. We are all trying to do our best on emissions, and there is much more we can do in that regard. The Teagasc roadmap is a plan. We are the only sector with a plan for the next ten years. There is work we can do and we will do it but we need to always compare like with like when we are making comparisons. That is all I will say on that.

On the lairage, no politician around here can say that the political establishment can wash its hands of that issue and that it is up to whoever else to deal with it. I am not flying a flag for the exporters. The lairage spaces were there and it was vital that the ferry companies sailed on alternate days. Farmers were being told that they were sailing on alternate days but a different message was coming from people in the Department and the Minister on the same day. We had two different messages from them and that is not acceptable.