Mr. John Enright:

On the ideas coming from our members, farmers do things every day to improve climate change. For instance, in relation to the economic breeding index, EBI, when farmers breed their cows every spring-summer, they use more climate-efficient animals. It is an ongoing issue.

The area of renewables is something in which farmers would be significantly interested, whether solar, wind, anaerobic digestion, or biomass. Farmers need to see the policy framework around that which would allow them to get into that area, whether rooftop solar panels on farms or anaerobic digestion. They need to be convinced that there will be an economic return from it. There has been bad experiences of this in the past, for instance, in relation to miscanthus, and these are issues that need to be resolved. The Government must come forward with initiatives in the area.

The matter of grains in Ireland comes down to economics. The key issue is the price of food and whether the farmer can make an economic return from the product. Unfortunately, tillage farmers have been struggling in recent years, but it comes down to the way we are pricing food.

On working with other sectors, our members work with dairy co-operatives, local LEADER groups and so on in different initiatives. Renewables are an area in which farmers have a great deal of interest but they need to see the policy framework.