Mr. Richard Kennedy:

I tend to use the saying that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Like every marathon, however, we need to start. As was referred to earlier, the end line is that by 2050 food will have to be produced sustainably because we will have a zero-carbon world. That is as I see it and nobody can argue with that. We must produce food sustainably. I firmly believe that in Ireland we have all the tools required to lead the world on this. I am absolutely convinced of that. As I said, it will take unique and collaborative initiatives. This means people working together but in different ways. This is why we were very excited about the work with Teagasc. We have the knowledge to start this journey. We know the direction of travel. Multispecies provides a part of this. As we heard in some of the submissions earlier, it is very important that the first thing we must do is baseline every farm. We must first see where we are before we go anywhere else. We need to do that. That would put us in a very strong position because then we are at the start of the race and each farmer would have the potential to go from there. That will take the industry coming together. As I have said to various people, we should collaborate to accentuate what we have. We tend to divide and diminish. I call on all participants, whether it is the committee, the Department, Teagasc, or the Devenishs or Carberys or UCDs of this world, we have the potential to lead the world. We have worked throughout the world and the reason we have been successful,and grown is the reputation of the UK and the island of Ireland in agriculture. When we step into any other country and say that we are from this island it gives us a huge advantage because people look to Ireland to see the success in agriculture. That was always the door opener for us.

We have that potential. We also have the danger, and there is a big danger, that we will be left behind if we do not decide we are taking this road. For me, it is not just the research bodies, the Government and the Department, it is also the financial institutions. Environmental, social and governance, ESG, is a huge driver in this and the financial institutions must and should encourage this. Every link in this supply chain must put its shoulder to the wheel. This will happen in that the demands and expectations have been set, but it will be how quickly we, as a country and industry, decide to step into this challenge. I absolutely believe that we are perfectly placed. We must open our minds. We must look at it as what is the art of the possible, and we believe the art of the possible is in front of us. Baseline farms start the journey. Give farmers direction and use the research and data we have.

Some of the people who have contributed to this meeting have shown the phenomenal knowledge and expertise we have in this industry, so we should use that. That is the baseline and we start from there. One then asks what direction we should travel in and how to answer all the challenges, because with every challenge there is an opportunity, including work around peatlands and work around biodiversity opportunity. Today we are talking about sequestration, and Professor O'Connor previously spoke about the opportunity and necessity to deliver on biodiversity and water quality. All these things can be met, I believe, as we look into this industry. We have seen it from around the world. We have seen where we stand on a global basis, but it is now a case of saying not what we cannot do but what we will do.