Mr. John Keane:

I thank Deputy Bruton for the questions. I will start with the 10% target by 2030 for the reduction of biogenic methane, which is the current target that has been set and agreed, and how we can stretch beyond that. We might look at where Irish agriculture is at now in terms of its biogenic methane output, and as Dr. Moore has said, in terms of our per-unit production. The first point to make on this, and it is important, is that we can look at our overall figure, which is widely and regularly quoted but we can also take that down to a smaller scale and the output we have per unit of produce and how efficient we are on that on a global or European scale. To break that down even further, if one considers a litre of milk one buys in a shop and the amount of carbon output by the production, one can compare it to the size of a bag of sugar. That is roughly, in a visual context, what we are outputting per unit of produce at the moment where milk is concerned. If one transfers that to South America or to some of our European counterparts, then that bag of sugar turns into a loaf of bread or turns the size of half a freezer. That is where we are in efficiency terms in Ireland with produce overall.

Extending that beyond where we are now was raised. We should look at the marginal abatement cost curve, MACC, developed by Teagasc a number of years ago and at the interventions and mitigations put together for that. There is improvement through genetics, which looks at improving the genetics of our herds to reduce the methane produced. It is an ongoing process and is accounted for both with respect to the indices on the beef side of things but also with the economic breeding index, EBI, on the dairy side. That is ongoing work and progress is being made with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF. An acceleration of that and increased focus on it through breeding and those practices on farms can definitely lead to better results. We can consider the age at slaughter from the beef herd and from dairy cattle transferring through that as well. We could have a greater focus on reducing the age at slaughter and improving the genetics which are being brought through that. We in Macra have advocated for a long number of years for the introduction of a sexed semen lab in Ireland to reduce and improve the efficiencies coming from the dairy herd in terms of a beef context, which are transferring into the beef herd. We welcome that the development of that sexing lab which is to be in place over the next couple of years. We see it as being a very important tool in that element of things. The signpost farm programme was recently launched by Teagasc and more than 40 industry partners. Its ambition is to reduce biogenic methane but also to reduce the overall impact of the sector. We are looking at the output of sector at present on a per-kilo-produced basis on the dairy side of things as about one for one. The ambition under the signpost programme is bring that to 0.7 kg and below. I might call on Mr. Fitzgerald to talk the committee through this briefly as he is involved in the programme himself.