Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is the crucial point. Deputy Flaherty talked about how he always took great pride and value in his hedgerows whereas his neighbours might not necessarily have done so. Let us say a farmer decides to diversify to a more sustainable type of farming and to increase his or her hedgerows or carry out other carbon sequestration measures on their land. Unless we can say there is going to be a direct benefit to them they will not give a damn, and rightly so, that it might assist Ireland in achieving its global climate action targets. They want to know what benefit and value they are going to get for carrying out that work on behalf of society. How can we get to that point if we are not carrying out a farm-by-farm analysis? That is the question I am trying to get to the bottom of.