Mr. Andrew St. Ledger:

I thank the committee for inviting us to the meeting. I am a small farmer from east Clare. I have a small amount of land with an agroforestry project on the land as well as some species-rich grassland. The agroforestry measures were contained in the last RDP under the heading of access two, which was the first establishment of agroforestry systems. We did not avail of it. Agroforestry systems may come in under access one of the RDP in the next round of CAP. They were contained in the draft regulation. Agroforestry systems can possibly provide solutions to the greening aspects and can help with some of the issues raised regarding mixing land use for fuel. In the agroforestry system it is possible to have fuel and food production side by side. The agroforestry systems use a mixed native woodland species. They have deeper, more beneficial rooting systems than monoculture conifers. Those rooting systems can help with the run-off buffering for rivers and streams, and the filtering of water which cleans rivers and streams. The leaf litter can provide nitrogen for the soil, thus helping farmers to reduce output on fertilisers. There are multiple benefits from agroforestry systems. I ask the committee to consider the many benefits.