Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister that we need new approaches and we need research, but we do have known measures that could be implemented. My interest is in how successful we have been. We have slurry spreading, clover planting, protected urea, multi-species sward, incorporation of straw and afforestation cover in winter. Many of these things are not new and do not need research; it is a question of encouraging the take-up. My concern is that the price of fertiliser was a big driver of the progress and the risk is that we will slide back if that price corrects itself.

I have specific questions. Is it the ambition of Teagasc that by 2030 it will have reached just 50,000 farmers with the Signpost programme? Is that ambitious enough? If we are falling down on this, it indicates that most farmers do not know the number of the emissions related to their particular activity. What instruments could the Minister introduce to accelerate these known changes that could be made at farm level?

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