Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is very good. This is research that my Department has paid for and it is UCD that is doing that. Teagasc likewise has been doing similar trials. All of this research is emerging now but what happens then is that Teagasc, through what we are funding and supporting, takes that research and works with signpost farms spread across the country to get farmers to apply that research and knowledge. It is something that can improve profitability as well. A big task is working to make sure this new knowledge is applied. Four or five years ago people would have said it was fanciful or dreamy talk to say this would be the case. Those swards would have traditionally been looked at as weeds in some cases. People would say it is not what they are used to looking at or that it is not good farming, as we have come to understand it, but the research and the evidence is showing that it works and that it is more profitable and produces more food with fewer emissions. That work is under way and we are seeing the evidence of that in that 30% reduction in fertiliser and that rapid transformation. Methane also drops because of earlier slaughter dates and there is improved animal health in the process.