Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank our guests for attending. I have a few questions about the agricultural side of things. I represent a rural constituency. Regarding innovation in agriculture, the witnesses spoke about carbon neutrality over a number of years. What innovations exist with regard to agriculture? What innovations are out there to make agriculture carbon-neutral? What is their take on the forced downsizing of agriculture compared to the displacement of agriculture or agricultural production to less carbon-efficient jurisdictions? We could have carbon leakage whereby if there is a forced downsizing in agriculture in Ireland, which is quite carbon-efficient relative to other countries, that slack in food production could be taken up by other less carbon-efficient countries.

I do not believe there is any kind of technical short list or relatively technical solutions out there relating to accounting for the likes of gases differently under greenhouse emissions - the likes of methane given its short life cycle. Will there be a different type of accounting of that in the future? If a carbon tax was introduced, would it exacerbate the displacement of agriculture from relatively carbon-efficient jurisdictions to less carbon-efficient ones?