Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Is it a problem for the witnesses or for farmers that when looking at the data, it is changing? At one time, in fairness to the Chair, we were going through the export of slurry. At one time the figure for the export of slurry was five but overnight it mysteriously came down to two point something. We got more accurate figures that were a bit higher than that and were in the threes. If there is not as much excrement coming out of an animal, there is not as much methane. The figures are changing a lot with the research we have done because, unfortunately, the EPA was just taking figures from other countries' research that maybe had been done with indoor systems, although I do not know. These inaccurate figures have affected our farmers. When building a house, the foundation needs to be right. There cannot be any doubt, unfortunately, whether it is the carbon budgets and all of that. There is nothing at all about sequestering and it is all about what goes up. We need to be fair.

What galls me is the kicking every day. I was on the television last night and we were debating this. People asked who was giving out. Look at the media every day. Even the farm media, there is always someone writing something and telling some story about a farmer and what he or she is doing wrong, what is going wrong or it is some bad news. I never see a good story. A lot of these people need to realise that we probably produce the best food in the world and we are a grass-based system. The fear I have is that if we keep welting at someone, they will get sick of it. People in a lot of places do not know what a turnip or a cabbage is, or even where the egg came out of. Someday they might see a shortage and might be glad of the farmer.