Mr. Paul O'Brien:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to speak this morning.

Following on from the president's comments on anaerobic digestion, 17 million tonnes of oil equivalent are generated from anaerobic digestion at present. That amount is forecast to increase to over 70 million tonnes by 2050. This would obviously give us a massive opportunity to be part of the solution. I am referring to taking products from farms, putting the gas that could be used into the grid and bringing the digestate back to farms. This is part of a closed-loop cycle. There is a fantastic opportunity for us to examine, as a country, the use of all these materials. A fossil fuel would be displaced at the end of the day.

On one or two other issues, I might be pre-empting a question that was touched on earlier. It was about Ag-Climatise now being linked to the nitrates action plan for the first time ever.

Some of the measures spoken about or proposed have little to do with water quality. I also highlight that this is another Government policy being brought in through a nitrates action plan. We find it disappointing that the Department is taking a step to try to bring in two policies for the price of one in this regard.