Mr. Conor Mulvihill:

There is a realisation in terms of where we stand. It is a bit like veganism; each to their own on the organic piece. No one size fits all. Based on the tenets the various witnesses today have espoused it is clear that most of us are working in the right direction. The Dairy Sustainability Ireland initiative is the first involving every individual dairy company, all the farm organisations relevant to dairy and all the State organisations, including the EPA. The EPA is not there for the craic. I appreciate what Deputy Pringle has said in asking if it is green-washing and another version of Origin Green. It cannot be. We are being forced into this. Almost 95% of our dairy produce is exported. If we are to compete after Brexit, the companies - Danone, Wyeth and Nestlé - that will buy those dairy products to go into ingredients need those sustainability credentials and not just talk about them. Without profitable farmers in those 18,000 farms all over the island, we do not have a dairy industry.

Deputy McConalogue asked about mitigation. It will be slow at the start and will look at input management that will have a result in water improvements, etc.

However, leading on to that - and I think Mr. McHugh outlined some of the emerging technologies - if it is successful, then we will move to roll it out among the co-operatives and processors. They are the ones who lead it down into farming. Then we can roll on to solar panels. We have seen what the European Investment Bank is doing in the Netherlands. We are seeing anaerobic digestion technologies and we looked into seaweed technologies. I assure the committee that when I saw the articles about the type of seaweed on the coral reef in Australia, I looked into the matter. It is the only one that works thus far, with only one trial. However, we are certainly looking at technological things that perhaps we can push through Dairy Sustainability Ireland because we have everyone in that.

In respect of Deputy Martin Kenny's question about extra grass instead of feed, that is a fundamental tenet and outcome of this Dairy Sustainability Ireland first phase initiative. We are trying to grow more grass and go for more dry matter per hectare. We are using Teagasc, other partnerships and science to try to drive that on and try to reduce it.