Professor Frank O'Mara:

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice. I am glad we were able to assist him with that other matter he mentioned. We do not have any formal tie-up with the Department of Education in terms of the education programme or the primary curriculum in schools. We do link with the Irish Agricultural Science Teachers Association on the curriculum for the leaving certificate agricultural science course, as I am sure UCD does. We certainly have an input there. There is a lot of project work now in regard to the leaving certificate agricultural science course. We have input into the materials that might be used for projects. In that course in general we are teaching people who have an interest or background in agriculture. For the generality of students, in particular at primary school, there is no formal tie-up, but, as Dr. Butler mentioned, we do quite a bit with schools through Agri Aware, our own agricultural colleges, or events such Science Week, which is going on this week. We try to get out to schools or link with them.

I will hand over to Dr. Butler in a second. She might mention the webinar we did that lots of schools tuned into. We have a soft impact on the school curriculum. We are not formally consulted about it. We have a lot to offer in terms of the science around agriculture, our food, where it comes from and all that. We are very happy to make that available and to input wherever we get a chance.

The Deputy talked about the uncertainty around farming now and the worry that many farmers have about decisions coming down the line. It is certainly a tough time with the regulations, in particular those around the environment and how they are going to impact on farmers. Part of our job is to make it clear to farmers what they actually mean. We recently had the change in the nitrate derogation limit to 220 kg N/ha. Obviously, there was a lot of discussion publicly around that and we provided a lot of reports that helped to clarify that debate. At the end of the day, one of the key jobs we have is to work with the 2,000-odd individual farmers that are affected. They want to know what it means for their farms and how they can best chart a course through the new regulation. I agree with the Deputy that there is a lot of uncertainty for farmers. They are wondering now if the 220 kg N/ha limit will be impacted when the nitrates derogation is reviewed in two years' time. We hear all about carbon farming and all of this. There is a lot to be done in terms of trying to communicate clearly to farmers around that, and we do a lot in that space. We have the signpost programme, as I mentioned earlier. It is focused on climate change but it also deals with water quality. I think we have pretty good reach to farmers on that. Certainly, the awareness is building up around it. Often, once farmers are a bit more aware of things and of what they can do, the fear goes out of it for them to some extent. If they can see that there is a solution or there is way for them to deal with the 220 kg N/ha limit, it does help. It is a huge job that our advisers, who have one-to-one contact with farmers, do. Perhaps Dr. Butler wants to come in.