Mr. Bill Callanan:

Chairman, I will deal with a number of the issues and I then propose to hand it over to my colleague, Dr. Eugene Hendrick, to deal with the issues on forestry.

I acknowledge Deputy Jackie Cahill's contribution and I confirm his assertion that the food production system in Ireland stands up to scrutiny externally. I assure him it does. It is well recognised, particularly in livestock systems, that a rain-fed grass-based production system is well regarded and is particularly efficient. At European level, Ireland's production system is recognised as the most efficient from a dairy perspective and fifth most efficient from a beef production perspective compared with our European partners. The grazing system is well recognised as being particularly efficient, especially where there is not a need for irrigation and so on. We do not have such difficulties.

There are a number of issues in terms of afforestation but in respect of the hen harrier, there are multiple ambitions for the agricultural sector, including food production, but also maintaining a very strong and healthy environment. That is necessary in terms of Ireland being able to communicate our responsibility in food production externally and internationally.

The hen harrier is identified as one of the very vulnerable species in our environment and its numbers have been in decline. Arising from that and as a consequence, measures have been taken to protect that species. It is similar in terms of the focus in the agri-environmental schemes and we have become much more focused in terms of ensuring the objectives of the national biodiversity plan are delivered upon.

I refer to Deputy Martin Kenny's concerns about the percentage of emissions from agriculture.

Of developed countries, Ireland is only surpassed by New Zealand in terms of the percentage of emissions that emanate from agriculture. We are an outlier in that respect in Europe because of the absence of heavy industry here. The majority of European countries are only in single digits in terms of the contribution of agriculture to their overall emissions.