Mr. Fergus Moore:

The Irish Government reports and accounts for carbon emissions and removals across all sectors of the economy; it does not claim any particular ownership of those carbon credits. Farmers can explore the voluntary trading of carbon as long as it does not impact on the State's ability to report that carbon. As the Senator may be aware, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine has opened a public consultation which closes on 3 November on rewarding farmers as well as issues relating to carbon farming and trading in ecosystem services. The public consultation is currently open. I would encourage all members of the public to submit their views on that. Last year the European Commission issued a communication on a removal certification framework which would allow landowners to get rewarded for removals that happen on their farms. Part of the consultation is looking at how to incentivise or reward farmers for the removal of carbon activities on their farms.