Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have been to UCC and it has done significant work over the years but I have not seen it advance. What I have seen advance is major concern about nitrous oxides and ammonia. In the Dáil today, one Deputy after another stood up to say that we had an agricultural crisis because it had been raining for several weeks in Kerry and people did not know where to put the slurry on their land. A real environmental biodiversity disaster as well as a climate disaster would be to just turn our land into an industrial production machine to produce grass and wood pulp for biomethane. The land-use requirements for that level of grass in a country where on two occasions in the last three years we have not been able to provide fodder for our national herd and have had to import fodder would require massive application of fertilisers with massive implications for biodiversity on the land. At first base, we need a real honest assessment of how much land is needed to do this and what are the biodiversity and environmental consequences of one doing this.