Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I take on board all the points the Senator is making. Certainly, the research is ongoing and establishing baselines is critically important. As I said in my opening remarks, that work is very much being addressed. There are other issues I think are of value, such as looking at the value of semi-natural grasslands which, in many cases, I do not think have been given enough consideration. We have lost quite an amount of our semi-natural grasslands over the past 20 to 30 years. We are losing hedgerows at an alarming rate and, in many cases, they are poorly maintained. They are being overly manicured. They have a significant role to play, and I would like to see benefits accrue from that, from the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and from other measures.

A nature restoration law is to come from the European Commission. We are developing an Irish Government position on that, which will have co-benefits for water, carbon and biodiversity. In the few seconds I have remaining I will say that the last thing that we want to do is to scapegoat farmers for this. It is critically important that we work in partnership with the farming sector. We think there is a valuable partnership to be had and that there is a great opportunity for farming to be centrally involved in this massive transformation that needs to take place.