Mr. John Keane:

I thank the Deputy for the question. Mr. Hanrahan and I have had the privilege of sitting in the food vision dairy group for the past nine months, which has gone through the systems the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, which is the reporting body for this, has. Our understanding of it, and forgive me if I do not have all the exact details, is that there are three different tiers on which carbon is accounted for in reporting. Tier 1 is the international panels. They are standard models, which are based on their findings. Tier 2 is based on some country-specific figures, some of which statistics we are operating on currently. Tier 3 systems are the most detailed. This tier is specific to the country and the system that is operational. In Ireland, if compared with what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, does, which takes in the total mixed rations systems in large sheds on the Continent and across the world, that is probably not comparable to the grass-based production system we have in Ireland. The ongoing methane research in Teagasc would suggest we are currently overestimating that in the region of about 10% or 12%. The sequestration from mineral soils is also being understated, according to the latest research, which has to be peer reviewed and so forth. On peatlands the amount of emissions is being overstated by a large amount. All of those cumulatively, when added to a farm, are going to make a huge difference from the book figure being emitted from each farm. That is our understanding of it. We do understand we have a number of years to go through before that comes into effect in the inventory itself. We have also been told this will be backdated on the inventory. The inventory is worked off 1990 figures. If these figures change, based on new evidence and research, those figures will be backdated on a percentage basis as far as 1990. If we are saying that today we are overestimating it by 2 megatonnes, we are working off the system we have. Tomorrow we will be working off a new accounting system that reflects this latest research. The difference will not be today versus yesterday. The difference will be today versus 1990, and having that incrementally backdated over the years. That is what we have been told regarding the way the system is going to be implemented.