Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

I would like to give the Deputy a wide-ranging answer as if I were the Green Party leader and allowed talk about every Department. However, I am Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and must therefore confine my remarks to matters for which that Department is responsible. Notwithstanding this, I take on board the Deputy's suggestion to consider how Teagasc might extend its remit to the greatest extent possible to address crippling energy costs in agriculture, particularly horticulture. These costs will continue to rise and this explains why we are not growing as many tomatoes as we used to and why the cost of protected crops is growing accordingly in Ireland.

We must focus on other areas concerning energy, as I discussed with the Deputy when visiting the good Dominicans in Wicklow town. Organic production is and has been shown scientifically to be less energy intense than other forms of production and this creates a competitive advantage that needs to be developed. This is a focus of my work in the Department. In Wicklow, we also discussed the fact that the use of local abattoirs is much more energy efficient than taking animals to the factories, which incurs high transport costs.

I am interested in biogas in terms of anaerobic digestion and geothermal energy in terms of producing protected crops, and I have studied experiments on wind energy for heating water for protected crops. Not all these areas fall within my remit, but the clear need to address rising energy costs in horticulture is such that I will be pushing for advances in them as part of a Government with collective responsibility.

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