Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his presentation. I read it this morning and to be honest I found very little in it beyond indications that a lot of consultations are happening and reports are being written, with promises of where they are going to be. Yet we heard on the radio from the Environmental Protection Agency that we are not going to meet our targets and are going to be well behind. The Minister made the argument a few moments ago that they are not looking at the whole picture. That may be the case; we can debate it whatever way we can.

The reality is, even if we do look at the whole picture, we are still in a serious difficulty here. We are in a serious deficit in respect of that.

The Minister mentioned the biomethane proposals going through Cabinet. I would like to tease that out a little bit with him. I come from a rural constituency and there are a lot of farmers who do not make an awful lot of money. We do not have a big dairy industry. They are looking for something else they can make money from. They want to do the right thing for the environment. The problem is that, in the past, more than a decade ago, there was a proposal regarding elephant grass and a number of other issues that some farmers invested in, yet it all came to nothing. Farmers are very hesitant to change what they do on a vague promise from the Government. What we need are very clear pathways. Deputy Bruton mentioned it a minute ago. That is one of the issues, that farmers do not feel they have the pathway to deliver or to be included in this process. Perhaps the Minister could give us a little more detail on what has been coming from this, what opportunities there will be for the agricultural sector and what it can deliver regarding climate change and the biogases that will be reduced from it?