Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a final point before the witnesses answer Deputy Fitzmaurice's question. What is extremely annoying for people is that our unique landscape is not getting any recognition. If one travels across Europe, one will not see a ditch for miles. Our unique landscape has the ability to sequester carbon. We are being told we have to do X and Y with our ditches, but no credit is being given for carbon sequestration. Each individual farm has a serious number of ditches. Farmers cannot comprehend why that landscape is not being recognised in the calculations. That is something that will not go away. It has to be addressed if we are going to be fair. We have discussed forestry today. If we are going to be fair in the calculations at farm level, we have to give recognition to the unique landscape we have compared with the rest of the world. When one travels in North America or wherever else, one will not see the landscape we have in this country. There is no recognition of that in the entire emissions debate.