Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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197. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the research that has been commissioned by his Department in relation to climate change mitigation and or adaptation over the past year; and if he will supply a copy of the terms of reference for any such research. [3327/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department funds research undertaken collaboratively by Teagasc and the higher education institutes, through a competitive Call for Proposals process primarily under our agricultural production (Stimulus) and forestry (CoFoRD) research funding programmes.

Grant award announcements I made under this process in 2013 included the provision of €504,115 for a project entitled ‘Precision Nutrition for improved animal productivity, product quality and environmental sustainability’ which, inter alia, is looking at reducing enteric methane production from dairy cows.

In addition, a number of other research projects funded by my Department relating to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation, are currently on-going arising from earlier grant announcements. These include, for example, commitments of €1.69 million to the ‘Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Initiative for Ireland’ network and involving collaboration between a number research institutes on the island of Ireland announced on 12December 2011 and €1.25 million for two further projects focusing on reducing nitrous oxide emissions announced on 26 November 2012. Details of all these research projects can be found on the Department’s website, under ‘press’ and ‘research’.