Professor Gerry Boyle:

In this situation, one cannot have enough communication. We are involved on several fronts on environmental enhancement and improvement. For example, there is a huge appreciation in the agricultural sector that concerns over water quality have to be dealt with. The Deputy is correct in suggesting the same appreciation does not extend at this point in time to climate change because the visibility is not there. We have been working closely with Bord Bia trying to generate visibility among the farming community as to the consequences and potential solutions to mitigate climate change.

For example, we have introduced the concept of the carbon navigator which is widely regarded across Europe as being an innovative device which indicates to farmers how normal practices can improve efficiency and the environmental footprint. In other words, there is a win-win, which is positive. Our plan for the next year is to build on that and on the publication, which I mentioned earlier, with regard to mitigation options in order to build a whole campaign around driving sustainability on farms.

We are also discussing with our parent Department where that can be extended in terms of policy. There has to be a suite of incentives for farmers to adopt some of the measures we have identified. For example, there are two clear quick wins. We have suggested a significant mitigation option on farming is to replace calcium ammonium nitrates with stabilised urea which can address nitrates oxide emissions, as well as the problem with ammonia, an important area to which we have been drawing attention. We think that is a wider problem beyond agriculture and is probably not as fully appreciated. The spreading of slurry is a critical mechanism to reduce emissions. We are looking at various technologies such as injection systems, trailing shoes and so on. Farmers will have to be informed and incentives will probably have to be put in place to ensure those technologies are adopted.