Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to repeat anything. The whole issue in farming seems to be getting the take-up in sufficient numbers, for both the new techniques and taking up forestry and all these elements. There are some programmes, like the forestry one, that look very impressive but yet are not achieving the take-up we would hope for. Is there any sense in looking at geographic areas and specific geographic targets around some of these key elements of take-up? It seems to me that if it was worked around a particular river catchment or geographic area, there would be more peer effort and engagement from local branches of this, that and the other. You could also engage with the local processors who may pay premiums. When it is at national level it all seems very difficult. Would we have a better chance of setting a target for forestry if we drilled down to some other geographic area and had compacts across the players within those geographic areas? I know there is an interest in the south east in looking at one of the worst river catchments there. It is possibly an approach that would yield a bit more dividend and get more people engaged in seeing climate action not as hostile but as the future of a competitive food sector, land use sector and so on.