Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their attendance and their work. This is a very complex area and I believe their work has been leading the way internationally. Not many countries have been through this process, and our guests have had rely on a great deal of information, data and processes that were developed before carbon budgets were even considered.

I will focus on the modelling, given that in the task our guests were set, their fundamental role was to develop the budgets using that modelling. It is a building block for the report and their recommendations. I acknowledge the area of modelling is very difficult and the fact that, internationally, not much work has been done on this makes it even more complex. There appear to be three primary models, on energy, agriculture and forestry. Have those models, or the assumptions that went into them, been peer reviewed or do our guests intend for them to be? I ask the same question about the data, given a model is only as robust as the data it uses. I do not know whether time would have allowed them to be peer reviewed but is that the intent?

Do other countries use our guests' models? I note that the TIMES-Ireland model, TIM, is used internationally. Is the agriculture model used internationally?

I noted that the scenarios used for the agriculture sector were suggested by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Was that a standard process? Did the relevant Department select the scenarios that were used for the energy model? Did the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have any other input into the formulation of these models and the data that were used during this process?

I know that when our guests were doing the modelling for the energy systems, they looked for pathways and examined what it would mean if there were X numbers of cars, and what would be the cost to the Government or whoever would be subsidising or funding it. Did our guests do any modelling on the herd? I know they did different pathways and suggested that if we took the requirement for reductions under scenario C, it would result in a reduction in production of X amount. Did they model how to achieve the reductions? When we are talking about the herd, many people talk about a cull. However, there are other ways to reduce the herd which could be started now by, for example, reducing insemination or impregnation of cattle. Did our guests model that out to see how long it would take to get to the different scenarios they outlined in their analysis?