Dr. Barry O'Reilly:

Yes. As category 2 plants are more complex, they will still fall under the GMO legislation but there would be adaptations to the current GMO legislation. Given the wide variety of different types of plants that can be produced under category 2, there are adaptations made to the NGT category two, the current GMO legislation, to make it more proportionate in terms of the data requirements for carrying out the risk assessment, the requirements relating to post-release monitoring and those for authorisation renewal.

There are adaptations there to take account of the different levels of risk associated with category 2 NGTs. As regards category 2 NGTs, if they do not meet the criteria for category 1, they still fall under the GMO legislation and are subject to authorisation, labelling and traceability. If they meet the criteria for category 1, they are classified as conventional plants and fall outside the scope of the GMO legislation. They are still banned in organic production, however. NGT plants are not allowed under the organics regulation.

In terms of transparency in the context of category 1 NGTs, there is a requirement for the labelling of seed propagating material. That is essentially to give organic farmers a choice and in order to ensure there is transparency in terms of the seed they buy. There are transparency provisions and there will be a public register available which will contain information on all category 1 NGTs.