Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I dispute the Deputy's last point entirely. There can be no place for the type of behaviour we saw on "RTÉ Investigates". I will not tolerate that as the Minister responsible for agriculture, nor indeed will anyone in the sector with responsibility. We will clamp down on it in every way we possibly can.

The Deputy made a point about emissions. There is no doubt we saw an increase in our dairy herd after the removal of quotas in 2015 and that led to an increase in emissions. That increase happened because the herd had been constrained since the early 1980s when quotas were first introduced. However, the increase that happened has now plateaued and we have seen a stabilisation of the herd in the last two to three years. The production of food does not have to mean our emissions go up in the time ahead. In fact, the opposite is true. It is about decoupling the continuation of food production from the emissions footprint of it. Just yesterday we produced the new Teagasc marginal abatement cost curve, MACC, in relation to how that can be stepped out between now and 2025. Farmers are more proactive in taking the steps that will see our emissions reduced than any other sector of the economy.

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