Mr. James Healy:

Considering we are well ahead of the targets, they are achievable. We need to step up what we are doing on the other side to ensure we are meeting our environmental targets. While the production targets are not a problem, we need to ensure Irish farmers make the most of all the abatement tools available. For example, changing the type of fertiliser used can bring about significant savings. I referred to the use of protected urea in my opening statement. Farmers continue to use calcium ammonium nitrate, CAN, instead of changing to protected urea, which is a more effective way of spreading nitrogen on soil, for some reason.

There are 14 suggestions as to how farmers can improve their carbon intensification in the Teagasc MACC. We need to go down each of these roads before considering changing the targets in Food Wise 2025.