Mr. Bill Callanan:

We fully agree with the development of that. As I said, we have set up a group to look at the issue, but it is quite complex and we need to step carefully when it comes to making commitments. Many people are making claims that are unsubstantiated about what can or cannot be done regarding it. On the forestry side, we have a woodland environment fund, where we are seeking private support to support national afforestation policy. That is where the corporate social responsibility of companies is bringing in additional finance to run this.

I will caution that there is quite a difference between a compliance market at EU level, which would be the cost of carbon. That is where, for example, the ETS is trading between sectors such as land use versus emissions associated with industry. That is not the direction of travel at EU level. It is very much around the voluntary carbon market and the encouragement of that. One can reasonably say it will be quite a different market. We will regulate the provision of that as opposed to simply rolling it out ourselves. I see a difference between a compliance carbon market, which would be used by industry to offset some of its emissions, versus the encouragement of carbon farming here to which we are committed.

I will ask my colleague, Mr. Crammond, to respond because the issue of cap and trade is something that came up on the dairy side. As the Deputy knows, the Minister is keen to work with industry on progressing this. We will certainly progress a call for evidence on carbon farming in the near future regarding how we will progress in developing carbon farming models. What the Deputy talked about as regards support for different dairy farms as to their level of intensity etc. has already been discussed in the context of that dairy group.