Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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816. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if software (details supplied) is available to the public; if so, the way in which it can be acquired; the cost of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35161/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish carbon reporting system (CARBWARE) was initially implemented in 2004 to meet reporting requirements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on all national forest sources and sinks. Following the completion of the first National Forest inventory in 2006, methods needed to be developed to integrate forest statistics and all available research information into a national forest GHG reporting system. This required further development to CARBWARE.

In order to ensure repeatability and consistency of reporting forest sinks, the CARBWARE system was developed to be delivered as a stand-alone software tool with well-defined database structures and methodological work-flows. The development of CARBWARE was based on research projects funded since 2004. The software development cost was €76,000.

The CARBWARE software is no longer used for carbon reporting and its maintenance has been discontinued. In 2018, Ireland replaced CARBWARE for carbon reporting and projections, with the Canadian Forest Service Carbon Budget Model for all UNFCCC, EU and Kyoto reporting and forecasting. This model is used by the EU Joint Research Centre and a number of other EU member states.