Mr. Cormac Healy:

I will try to go through the questions as they were asked. Senator Mac Lochlainn asked questions about intensive farms versus smaller farms. The starting point is to look at some of the numbers from a meat sector perspective. We process cattle annually from more than 60,000 farmers. We process meat from 25,000 sheep producers and 60,000 beef farmers. There are large numbers of small operations as can be seen from those figures. In the beef sector, the average number of animals processed per farm is 30. There is still a huge network of small farms. I am not necessarily qualified to answer the Senator's question but schemes such as the beef data and genomics programme, which we talk about a lot and are very supportive of, are open to all. Many of the schemes that are part of CAP pillar 1 and particularly pillar 2 are open to farms of all sizes. That is all I could say on that. The Senator gave figures on farm reductions. Generational renewal remains a big challenge for agriculture and farming in many countries.

Deputy Kenny mentioned the grassland and the carbon sink. The Chairman said representatives from Teagasc will appear before the committee. I ask the committee to spend a bit of time on the issue. We are not qualified to speak on it but I will comment on a number of things that we understand to be the case. Permanent grassland sequesters carbon. It is a huge sink of carbon but is not fully accounted for in the overall accounting system globally or at European or Irish level. As a result, the livestock sectors in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere get a bad rap. There is not total agreement globally on how to count it. Climate change science is a new science and there is not agreement. We need to point it out if we feel there is a positive contribution that is not being recorded.

I will mention another aspect of the work we are trying to do. The only thing one gets credit for is further enhancements that are made, which is the same as in the forestry sector. Much of our existing forestry is not counted but new plantings are counted. The project we are trying to establish with Teagasc concerns outlining best practice on permanent grassland. Some areas are more suited to further stocking and some are more suited to reduced stocking and perhaps some planting. The issue is how to maximise the sequestration from the permanent grassland we have. It is not our field of expertise.

In terms of a move to intensive feeding, we are still very much a grass-based production system. Our advantage in beef and dairy production and other livestock pursuits is that we can grow grass. I am not sure if there has been intensification; I do not necessarily agree with that point. One of the things that happens is that in winter there is a certain amount of housing required but in the final months of an animal's life there are production systems that will finish them off faster. One key factor from a meat sector perspective in terms of climate change is the age of slaughter; finishing animals earlier has an impact. The fact that Irish beef and lamb is grass-based is still a huge marketing attribute.

On the bovine digestive system, research on seaweed was published a number of months ago but we would need to harvest all the seaweed in Ireland, England and the world to produce a counterbalance.

However, Teagasc has done a great deal of work. There are cows with little containers strapped to their backs measuring everything to do with the digestive system. All of this comes back to the fact that we are discussing biological processes, not changing a car engine or moving to electric. We will not have electric cows. We are stuck with a biological system, so the mitigation potential is limited.

This brings me to Deputy Pringle's point about us focusing on the farm level. It is the raw material that the processing industry works on, but that is purely because the farm level accounts for the largest proportion of greenhouse gas emission volumes. It is recognised that more than 90% of emissions are at farm level. Hence, we have to address those.