Mr. Joseph Curtin:

It is one of the issues NESC explored in its 2050 vision paper. The vision is more or less to have a decarbonised economy across transport, energy, residential and commercial sectors and whatever is left would be apportioned to the agricultural sector. The important thing is that how we calculate agricultural emissions could change and there could be significant opportunities for this country. For example, grasslands could potentially be used as a sink for emissions, as could afforestation. The year 2050 is a long way off. That gives us 40 years to change. We will not be in the same situation in 2050 in terms of our agricultural emissions as we are now. For example, nearly half of agricultural emissions are made up through artificial fertilisation – the use of fossil fuels in fertiliser. Within a long timeframe there are opportunities in agriculture so I would not assume that the chunk of emissions will always be there in the agricultural sector. There will be possibilities and technical advances. There have been technical advances recently as a result of the nitrates directive where, for example, we reduced fertiliser use by half. Who is to say we cannot continue along that road?