Mr. Cormac Healy:

It is good to hear Deputy Ryan speak with passion about some of the grass-based production systems that we have. If agriculture even just stood still at the moment as other parts of the economy started to decarbonise, including the transport sector, housing and other industries, our percentage would still be high.

We will remain in the spotlight and that needs to be recognised because food production is a natural, biological process. The ability to mitigate carbon output is limited and yet farmers are trying.

When we talk about our European colleagues, we always have to remember that we are coming from a low production base. The volume involved in our dairy, dairy expansion and the plans that the dairy industry has is a far lower volume than other member states have increased by in the same period. We need to retain perspective. We are a small producer in the global context, and while percentage figures might sometimes look big, the total volume is very small, whether for dairy, meat or other sectors.