Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like every other Department, we have ground to make up and we need to see the measures that we are adopting help to achieve that. It is challenging to meet those targets but every effort is being made through the different schemes and policies we are putting in place to move in that direction.

I suppose, like every other sector of the economy, these are big tanks to turn. Progress builds up and momentum builds up. When one looks at the CAP plan we have in place and the various steps that we have in there, we expect it to continue to deliver and continue to improve.

Certainly we are hoping to publish the strategy in relation to anaerobic digestion in the next number of weeks and that will be important in terms of delivering significantly on some of the diversification options that we need to see evolve by the mid-point of the decade, and particularly in the second half of the decade.