Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their contributions. I have a question about the IPCC and the awful scenes we saw of the forest fires in the Amazon and the horrendous damage being done there. That can be contrasted with the significant efforts we are now making here to tackle climate change. I think there has been broad acceptance in recent years that the climate is changing. We had a very big problem previously with climate deniers. How do the witnesses perceive a global effort being made? Is it possible? As I said, contrasting our little country of 6 million people with what is happening in the Amazon, people rightfully ask, no matter what we do, whether it will make a difference. While we know we need to make an effort, it is very challenging to get that message out to people.

Has the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine made any progress on an anaerobic digestion strategy? We hear that it is the way to go and will be a good solution for farmers - some anyway - yet we have heard some negative feedback from certain areas. Will the Department brief us on any progress that might be made on this? Has the Department made any progress on a response to the IPCC special report on climate change and land?

Has Teagasc carried out any research on the use of rewetted peatlands? We mentioned paludiculture, which - the Teagasc representatives do not need me to tell them this - is the productive use of wetlands in the growing of plants of one sort or another, particularly for biomass. Do they have anything to say on that?

My other question for Teagasc concerns the tree planting targets. I think I read somewhere that we will have to plant 250 million trees. If we are to try to achieve that, how will we convince members of the farming community, who take pride in their land, especially if they have very good land, arable land, to plant trees? That is an awful lot of trees across our small landmass, bearing in mind that 20% of it is peatland.