Mr. Bill Callanan:

I cannot accept that there is not identification and knowledge in terms of that. Perhaps it is a question for the committee to put to the EPA. As I understand it, over a thousand lines of various inventory data are used to populate our overall emissions. There are emission factors associated with peat under agricultural usage. If we talk about peat soils, many of the peat soils here are grass-covered. Internationally, many of them are in horticulture production, because traditionally there are no stones or they are easily managed for that. There are different emission factors for that. There are emission factors associated with our grassland and what they remove, which are positive, that go into the national inventory. I cannot accept that there is not a knowledge.

However, we are absolutely committed to growing that knowledge and investing in the development of that knowledge. That is where the likes of the national soil carbon observatory will give us country-specific data for Ireland based on real research, which takes a number of years to put in place. It is quite a different suggestion to assert that we do not have any knowledge in terms of what our lands are emitting or removing. The data are part of the structure at EPA level on national inventories, including data on the number of livestock and the type of livestock. There are standards in terms of that reporting. There is tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3. I will not claim to be an expert, but basically, the higher the level of data, the higher the tier of reporting. We are continually working towards increasing and improving the reporting levels. I am sure it is the same in forestry with tiered reporting.