 on time-to-smart pathways for Irish agriculture development. In particular, I'd like to welcome our Minister of Agriculture, Mike Cleed, who's here on my left. It's great to get him along from a very, very busy schedule, and I know he's under some time pressure, so I'm not going to the day proceedings and time moving along the fast I can. Also, I'd like to just welcome Brendan Halligan here on my left, who is President of the IAEA, and Matt Dempsey, President of the RDS, and Tom Arnold on my right here, who is one of the main authors of the report, but he's also Chief Executive of the IAEA. Joe Curtin, who has done not-let-the-work, who on the report is here in front of me as well. So I won't try to welcome anybody else, other than just to say a general welcome to everybody, and particularly to members of the advisory committee and sponsors who work with us on the development of this report. This initiative started about 18 months ago, and I suppose the reason for it was both organizations have been coming with this dilemma of the two serious challenges that are facing humanity at the moment. The first one obviously is food supply for an increasing world population, and the second one obviously is to cope with the challenges of climate change, and the impact of climate change on food supply in many, many countries, including our own. So both organizations have been coming with looking at what they could do about it, and at the same time, this concept of climate-smart agriculture was beginning to gain traction internationally. Most of us here in this room probably have attended the lecture series put on by the EPA and Chowdysk on these topics over the last couple of years, but I suppose a lot of the issues weren't being applied specifically to an Irish context. Because we have a unique, quite unique context here in Ireland. First of all, we have a grassland-based agriculture. We've a relatively small area of forestry, and on top of that then we have very difficult demands and targets to meet under EU targets and international obligations. So when you bring them all together, we have a unique set of challenges here in Ireland. So during the last 18 months or 15 months, we've had a lot of international speakers and national speakers looking at different aspects of the topic, and we've tried to bring the essence of what we're done into this report. To be without further ado, I'd like to ask the Minister to launch the report, Minister. Thank you very much, Tom. I'd like to thank you for your invitation and the IEA and the RDS for hosting a very successful series of talks and workshops under the Leadership Forum on Climate Smart Agriculture, which was launched by my colleague and Minister of Simon Coatney I think in March 2015. I was happy to accept the invitation to launch this independent report, Climate Smart Pathways to Irish Agriculture Development Exploring the Leadership Opportunity. I would like to acknowledge the work that Tom and Jo have done to deliver this analysis of the issues that were raised and debated in these talks. Interestingly enough, when I was appointed on the 6th of May last, I met with the Secretary-General of the Department of Agriculture relating to agricultural risk in the fire blister house at about 10 o'clock on Friday night on the 6th of May, and he handed me a pretty comprehensive file, and it was the end of what's happening in the department. But he said there are two particularly important things in there, which might get your head around. I think that there'd be pretty significant issues in the department. One was climate change, and the other was Brexit. He said we hope they're one of them might fall off the agenda. Of course, we've already let the situation over. We have to be very comprehensively important to them. This report is a welcome addition to the debate on this very important topic. There is much in the report to generate for the robust discussions amongst all of us who are stakeholders in this key sector. As the report notes, we are indeed a rare breed, pun intended, in terms of developed countries. Our rich fields that support our beef and dairy sectors form a critical part of our economy. This combined with the ambition of increasing our level of forested land presents us with a unique challenge. However, unique challenges produce innovative thinking and groundbreaking solutions. It is my firm belief that we are and must continue to be global leaders in climate smart agriculture and sustainable food production as we are well placed through just that. Ensuring food security for all of us and preventing dangerous climate changes are two of the biggest challenges facing mankind today as alluded to by Tom. Something acknowledged by leaders across the developed world in last year's Paris Agreement on Sustainable Development Goals. While Ireland alone cannot feed the world, it is important that people have access to a wide and varied diet, a diet that includes beef and dairy. It is equally important that this project comes from the most efficient production systems which, given our climate and unique grass-based systems, is well placed to deliver. This is not Ireland being biased or sentimental towards its oldest and largest indigenous industry. It is something that independent research has confirmed. Ireland is one of the world's most efficient food producers in terms of carbon footprint per unit of output. With the giant lowest carbon footprint per unit in the EU for dairy production and the fifth lowest for beef production. However, there is no room for complacency. Ireland was never a country of heavy industry or of significant arable output. As a result, the agriculture sector, dominated as it is by grass-fed ruminants, accounts for approximately 45% of our non-emissions trading sector, greenhouse gas emissions. Although it is important to state that in 2014, agriculture greenhouse gas emissions were more than 14% below their peak in 1998. Nationally, the Environmental Protection Agency predicts that Ireland will fall short of its non-ETS target for 2020. And all sectors face significant challenges in meeting whatever targets are agreed under the upcoming EU climate and energy framework in 2020-20. The commission is to publish its proposals in this regard to all member states next Wednesday, along with an impact assessment. Over the past number of years, my department has worked alongside our colleagues across government to ensure that the commission fully understands Ireland's unique positions in terms of the size of its agricultural sector. This led to recognition by all 28 heads of state in the October 24 European Council of the limited cost-effective mitigation potential of the agricultural sector, combined with the importance of including a forestation and land use, land use change and forestry as part of future climate and energy policy. As an industry, as policy makers, and indeed as individual farmers, we continue to take steps to mitigate climate change. Initiatives such as the IIEA, RDS Leadership Forum on Climate Smart Agriculture are imperative to drive thinking in this area, and my department is very happy to participate. We must continue to implement measures to drive down the greenhouse gas intensity of our food production, even further from its already existing efficient level. Our rural development programs work over 4 billion euros over the next seven years. We strongly target towards environmental benefits and will bring the latest innovative sustainability research and practices directed farmers through knowledge transfer groups. Our unique beef data and genomics program will not only improve the environmental sustainability of beef production, it will also bring economic benefits to farmers. It will help to place Ireland at the forefront globally of beef genetics, enhance our reputation as a world leader in sustainable production, and increase the carbon efficiency of the sector. From a marketing perspective, it will help to reinforce the sustainability of our products on a global market. The collection of vital genetic information can also contribute to the development of a genetic traceability system, which will be a global force, showing Ireland to be a world leader in consumer assurance and traceability. The benefits of this improved data infrastructure will be reinforced and coupled with the knowledge transfer element of the rural development program. The BLOSS Agri-Environmental Scheme creates an understanding of the need to protect the environment and encourage sustainable land management. Farmers can choose which climate smart options to implement on their land, local solutions are keyed. In order to achieve our sustainability goals, all of our Agri-Food agencies work closely to share information and knowledge. Due to this shared vision, we are now world leaders in areas such as sustainable auditing and have already personalized carbon footprinting and plans for more than half of our farms. Last year, stakeholders in FoodWise 2025 from the industry came together to agree on a new 10-year strategy. Sustainability is at its core. FoodWise 2025 states that, and I quote, environmental protection and economic competitiveness should be considered as equal and complementary. We cannot be achieved at the expense of the other. The strategy sets out a range of actions aimed at managing significant projected growth in the sector in a sustainable way by protecting and improving the environment. Its long-term vision of local roots and global reach is based on the continued development of the sector to meet growing global demand for traceable and sustainable products in the meat and dairy sector. Education and scientific research are also critical. Knowledge transfer groups aim that farmers operate at a local level. Programs such as TAGIS, Connected, and our engagement in innovative national and international research will help the sector become even more sustainable as it grows. The agriculture sector's contribution to the national mitigation plan will be set out, will set out the steps towards further mitigation of our emissions. Our forestation is a major greenhouse gas mitigation measure that we are taking on agricultural land and for Ireland it is essential that the EU's greenhouse gas accounting system should take account of the value of our station to encourage this real and additional mitigation from the land sector. We are also preparing a sectoral adaptation plan. Ireland will continue to be affected by extreme events such as recent rain and subsequent flooding which have devastating effects. We must adapt in order to become more resilient. This plan will be a first step towards reducing vulnerability and exposure to present climate variability in the agri-food sector. The issue of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture will only be successfully tackled if it is done at an international level. We must work to support agri-food producing countries in developing the necessary policy, technical, and financial tools to ensure the adaptation and climate change considerations are the mainstream of their agricultural sectors. In terms of food security, Ireland's development aid program has a strong focus on food and nutrition, including through funding from my own department to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and World Food Program. Irish aid has spent almost 21 million euros in agricultural programs, 90% of which are climate-proofed. Ireland has been very active in the field of international development action, through agricultural research training and the extension to strengthen the capacity of farmers in food insecure regions, thus enhancing food, system distribution, and resilience. Irish aid and TAGUS collaborate towards reducing hunger and under-nutrition in developing countries, where Irish aid identifies areas in food insecurity to which TAGUS can provide support. A good example of this policy in action is the work being done on improvement of potato yields in Africa. We recently presented an Irish case study on climate-smart agriculture at the Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture Annual Forum. We are also actively participating at the forefront of other international climate and agricultural initiatives at an international level, including global research aligns and agricultural greenhouse gases, the EU joint program initiative on agricultural food security and climate change and the Food and Agricultural Organization. We are founders of the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership, also known as LEAP. Our ambition is to be a global leader in sustainable food production. Ireland has a climate efficient agricultural sector, but more needs to be done to ensure that we are and remain the most sustainable producer in the world of milk, beef, and other agricultural products. As stated in the conclusions of the report, to succeed in our goal towards climate smart agriculture and global leadership in this field, we must be environmentally, socially, and economically responsive, and we must also be coordinated and ambitious. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister. Look, we'd move straight on to Tam Arndt, who's going to outline the findings of the report in a little bit more detail. Okay, this really is the global context. It's a graphic which attempts to show the basic interconnection between food security, food and nutrition security, and climate change. I think we all know that these are the consequences of not succeeding in food or the other. But suffice us to say that it is a global challenge of the first order of magnitude, which none of us can afford to ignore. And then the question, as Tom said earlier on, was where does Ireland stand in this? What responsibility do we have? In particular, this concept that has emerged in recent years of climate-smart agriculture. And it is presented as having, if it's achievable, a triple win effect of increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, of dealing with emissions to meet international obligation, and of building resilience to be increasing the evident impacts of climate change. And we've experienced that here in Ireland in recent years, and so we're probably loving it. So it is a big initiative for a big challenge, and that was the background to the establishment of the Leadership Forum. And that has involved this 18 month process working with stakeholders and experts to identify smart ambitious and pragmatic solutions for Irish agriculture within this global context. But establishing the forum was also a response to another reality in this country, that in matters of agriculture and environment, that quality of dialogue that had existed between some of the stakeholders had left, I think, something to be desired. There was not as efficient willingness, perhaps, to listen to each other and to take account of other people's points of view. So in establishing this, we wanted to see could we address that too? We'll also go on, if you like, a learning journey together. Our basic ground rules was that we were going to do good science with good manners. And we've done that, I think, to a fair degree, and while not everybody who's been associated with this would agree with everything in the report, it would be surprising if they did, I think we brought people along that journey. And this is the outcome of it, which you all have. It has involved a great deal of work, and I would again pay tribute to the advisory committee, group who have helped along the way. Joe Curtin has brought a huge amount of work in, and Tom Curley has been a major, and Paul has been a major asset as well, which is part of the wider input from the RDS. And so I have now three or four slides, which really attempt to capture what the report says. Striving for global leadership, aiming at bringing progress to a new level. We want to be very clear that some of the things that the minister has already spoken about represents already significant progress here in Ireland. But I think we also need to be entirely clear that if we are to get to an aspiration of credible international leadership, that progress needs to be brought to a new level. And what we're trying to do in this report is spell out that agenda that will bring us to this new level. At the heart of it, it would mean the adoption, by government, of having climate-smart agriculture and the global leadership in climate-smart agriculture as a clear policy objective, and then you put in place the framework to support that. It will require high-level political commitment and a buy-in from all key stakeholders. And it will require a whole-of-government approach, which will require that domestic, high-quality, credible domestic policy is then reflected in what we say at international level on the policy advocacy front. There's quite a few of my former NGO colleagues here today. And they will be all aware, and some of the rest of you may be aware, that there is a precedent for this sort of approach. About 10 years ago, there was a report at the Irish Hunger Task Force who'd set out to establish Irish leadership in this field. And by doing these things, having clear policy, having high-level political commitment, having a whole-of-government approach and having buy-in from key stakeholders, they were the elements that over a relatively short number of years established Ireland as an accepted leader in the field of nutrition and food security. What we are proposing in this report are similar principles to underpin what we are trying to do in climate smart agriculture. On the specifics, this is what we are suggesting, that at the domestic Irish level, we've developed a management framework to measure, report, and verify progress towards achieving CSA leadership on an annual basis so that improvements can be clearly demonstrated and communicated. I think we all here, or many of us here, accept the progress that has been made, and we are selling that, if you like, as part of our national front, in terms of sustainability approach. But that acceptance at international level has to be further enhanced, and that is part of what we're developing. Continuing to develop national divisions and inventories so that Ireland can gain credits from all-long-front improvements in carbon efficiency and the development of carbon sinks. And what the minister talked about there, about some of the response we need to achieve at EU level, the understanding of policy shifts that EU level is necessary, that is part and parcel of this. Aligning incentives to promote dairy meat enterprises in the post-milk quota era as there are, these are more carbon-efficient compared to social beef systems. These are some quite difficult and detailed issues here. We don't go into the level of detail to solve all these problems in the report, but these are at the heart of what is good. Proper progress has to be made if we are to make overall progress. This issue, promoting access to land to young farmers, is already currently government policy for some years. More needs to be done. Reconfiguring extension services in the light of climate smart priorities, including greater use of technologies that are now available for education, data gathering, and innovation needs to be integrated. I wish to take this opportunity to say a big tribute to the work that Charkisk has done. What we also realized that five or six years ago, Charkisk numbers at that tour were put back. If this is to be a national priority, that's something I think we need to look at. And against the issue of forestry, very important, but there are a series of both financial and non-financial barriers to forestry, including relaxing on the planting environment which need to be looked at. And this is another important issue, that at the level of renewable energy, there are possibilities within many rural areas to have more renewable energy on farms, more opportunities for farmers, and that needs more support. And then I think the really important issue, exploring the opportunities for all island collaboration for CSA. Some very good work has happened in Northern Ireland, some good work has happened here. We need to pull this together and work together as an island in presenting. I'm coming up to the very end now, the minister. This is sort of the international field. The minister talked about the very proud track record Ireland has in the area of food and nutrition security on parts of the Oversead aid program. Part of the key element of that is the existing commitment that 20% of the Irish aid budget is spent on food security and nutrition. We are making the recommendation here that the Irish aid budget of 30% is spent on food security, nutrition, and climate smart agriculture, and that these sectors will probably integrate it. Develop a strong programmatic and learning relationship between Irish NGOs and Irish aid around CSAs. Mobilizing technology transfer to food and secure regions using public private partnerships, potentially focusing on improving livestock efficiency. We have a number of highly effective and impressive private sector firms working in this field. I think more can be done to support them. And finally, there is a very big issue coming down the tracks within the next two years onto the shape of the next common agricultural policy for suggesting that the CSA should be at the heart of reshaping that agricultural policy and that also should extend into some of the UN and climate change negotiations. Some final thoughts. I think the value of this report is it's an independent report coming from two established and I would say relatively institutions. It has been the product of a unique collaboration involving a wide range of shareholders, stakeholders. And we think by virtue of its independence, by virtue of this inclusive approach to coming up with this report, this report is pretty unique at international level. And it can serve to tell the Irish story at both EU and international level. We don't claim to have all the answers. We acknowledge that our issues we are raising in this report which need further debate. But that is part of the purpose of this report to move that debate. And that's part of our high level and not technical. And if you want to read it all online, leave it at the end of the address. Thank you very much, Ines. APPLAUSE Thank you very much, Tom. I think it's a fairly detailed report and it's great to get across in the hand for the slides. I think you'll have to read it to get more depth and we'll have a chance in a few minutes to discuss it in more detail. But before we do that, I'd like to ask Matt Dempsey, who's President of the RDS, to give his immediate response to the report and I think we'll open up for discussion then, if that's okay. So, Matt Diggs, would you? OK, thanks very much, Tom. Just for those in the Department, if you'd convey my thanks to the Minister for coming to launch this report, his input and that as predecessor has been enormously valued. But what on earth is the RDS doing involved in something like this is a valid question. But found in 1731, to advance the economic and cultural life of the country, it fits in fairly neatly with what we are meant to be about. I'm not going to go into a detailed history, but just to remind ourselves from a scientific point of view, when Marie Curie discovered radium, we imported all the radium for distribution to the Dublin hospitals. So our commitment to the real application for human good of science was alive in the early part of the last century and it should continue now. That's the reason that we were so happy to team up with a remarkable institution and I'm delighted to see one of the main founders here, Brendan Halligan, the Institute of International and Economic Affairs with Tom Arnold as Director-General and the RDS tripping in, but it could by way of organisation, finance and scientific capacity. I also want to pay tribute to the Department of Agriculture. Part of the great strength of a small country like Ireland is that all available expertise and input can be so easily mobilised if the will is there and real policies considered calmly and given to government as the considered view of people that have developed real ideas. This is what we're trying to achieve in this. There's a few key ones, I think, that come out from my point of view. As a farmer, I've been acutely conscious of the carbon footprinting that Bordvia and the Quality Assurance Scheme have been carrying out for the last six or eight years on the beef side. It's now being slowly extended to the dairy side. On the other hand, on the dairy side, we've been acutely conscious of the genetic improvement of the dairy herd through the whole genomics. We look forward to similar progress being made on the beef side, but it's much more tentative. But the fruits and prizes that can be garnered from genetic progress, as the minister said, are really significant because of the efficiency. We still have some gaps. Recently, we were wondering was methane now going to be excluded from our consideration as regards bovines? The answer, of course, is it's not. It's being excluded from the clean air considerations until 2030, but not from greenhouse gas emissions. So that's still a challenge. Clearly, the minister referred to the amount of greenhouse gases produced per unit of output. A key measure from Ireland's point of view in trying to stress the efficiency. I think the report brings that out well, but clearly that's on the negotiating plank for our negotiators as they tackle into really serious talks going on. A mention has already been made of forestry, another key negotiating strategy that really has to be successful if we're to make real progress. We have been, and I think your report brings that out well, we have been highlighted along, I suppose, with New Zealand international context, but we've left to one side in a European context. There's no country that has been bypassed by the industrial revolution like Ireland has. We've developed straight away into the microchip age, so agriculture stands out like a sore thumb as regard to the percentage of greenhouse gases emitted. It puts us in the target line and we have seen, in my view, somewhat discordant voices at national level in saying what agriculture's contribution should be and how it should be scaled back. I think at least at this stage this is inappropriate and some may regard it as unhelpful, but at the same time this is an issue which some of the population feels strongly about and which we have a duty to tackle in a non-emotional, scientific and logical way. I was glad to see on the recent CSO census data sent out to farmers to fill in that they're now looking very clearly at sustainable best practice on farms and trying to get a handle on what is actually happening at farm level and Glambia and some of the major dairy processors are in the same process. So the department for their negotiations are going to have really first rate information probably among the best in the world as they tackle into one of very serious negotiations in Europe. The report I think brings out well the importance of sustainability in an environmental but also in an economic sense of farmers and this will clearly be kept centre stage I think by minister and the department and also by farmers themselves but also by the IEA because this is a critical component if you get a society where there can be a report a 26% increase in GDP and we immediately have ministers and other responsible officials coming out and saying that this doesn't reflect the real economy agriculture and farming do reflect the real economy these figures it's important to keep in context that we want to see steady sustained incremental progress and we also want to fulfil our international obligations but obviously we want to have a say in ensuring that those international obligations are tailored where Irish interests are not unduly sacrificed we have the capacity to grow our industry significantly we have the capacity to grow it sustainably both economically and environmentally and that has to be our aim I was glad to see one of my fellow directors in the Farmers Journal featured one of our seminars on this whole area in the RDS when we had a succession of speakers and Mike McGahn was able to spell out very clearly what had been achieved by via carbon efficiency on his dairy farm in Longford there are real examples of real progress at farm level so let us try and build on that this is, I think, a worthwhile report I'd really like to thank all those involved Tom, thank you for your encouragement thank you for your encouragement and help Tom Curley, thank you for your real devotion to getting it across the line where it encapsulates so much of what we believe in and what we should believe in as a nation we look forward to continuing this work with all of us involved in farming and the agri-sector and looking to build a never more prosperous future for the agri-food sector so again, please convey my thanks to the minister both for launching it and coming here to launch it during days of some political turmoil here but real political upheavals across the sea so let's hope that we continue to strike a happy balance thank you very much Brendan Haddigan chairman of the IEA Electric Public Community Commons, please Brendan I've been coming into Boswell's hotel and I've been in this room for about 50 years to various public meetings and press conferences and launches and reports and I can quite honestly say I've never seen a bigger one I think the fact that so many people have come and that this report was launched by the minister has already ensured that it is a success and I want to particularly thank the RDS to his president Matt Dempsey and Tom for the collaboration the partnership that we have created with them has been very true to one that's the most august and prestigious organization of this type in the country since 1731 has been pursuing the national interest in the area of science and agriculture in particular as well as the arts and that made it a very apt and appropriate partner for us in this area and has climate change which we began to work on over 10 years ago we were the first organization to put it on an agenda and it's been a slow border to give back to them the best collaborative part of the film was the RDS and particularly Matt his dear friend who was a founder member of the institute himself and I think that the success of today is going to be a harbinger of what it is we can achieve in the future quite clearly I want to thank Tom for his chair the steering committee his colleague Paul and I especially want to thank Tom Arnold who made the presentation earlier whose brain child this is and who has put an enormous amount of work not just at the intellectual level but at the organizational level in producing a template that we have never had before there's a huge number of people involved in this organization but the fact is the biggest collaborative effort that he and the institute have achieved for the last 16 years not since the year 2000 he produced a report on the agenda 2000 having an edited remotely approaching this I think much of the credit belongs to his very many skills and I also want to thank Joel Curtin who believe with our own hands at the institute is a very callow youth as an intern as a researcher and he's now clearly midway through what is already a very distinguished career being a fellow down the institute in climate change and I just not only admire his great expertise but above all I love his enthusiasm which I am absolutely approachable so where do we go from here I think the point I want to make particularly is that this report is only the beginning it's almost like a short prologue to a Shakespearean plague it's for 10 seconds and the production is going to go on for two and a half hours the importance of it is that we've begun sketch the agenda we've begun to put this in context and we've made the start most particularly the start we have made that's the point of time Ireland stressed in the presentation bringing together a community of interests who might not otherwise have talked with each other or to the extent that they would have talked at each other would have been antagonists rather than what we are now partners in what we recognize to be an extraordinary difficult complex task there is an inherent dilemma which has been mentioned for the floor many times of increasing agricultural production which is going to have to happen worldwide but we are reducing a part of the emissions now we obviously do not have the solutions at this point either technically or in terms of policy but this report begins to pose the questions and begins to suggest some of the answers and that's what's most important I thought in many ways the indication of this great experiment has been the engagement on the involvement of agriculture I think it's important for us to remember that this is the oldest department of state it precedes long by decades it precedes the establishment of the state and it has a particular culture of great responsibility and devotion to the national interest but also great courage in confronting issues and I think the fact that the department from the very beginning supported this project was the greatest encouragement but it was hand being expected the presence of minister Coby in launching the project the presence today of minister Creed in launching the report and themselves with the greatest encouragement that we have received but they are the greatest example physical example of their commitment to this so that is I think to take great heart from the fact that this report has been published in the way that it has appeared let us take heart in the fact that we have all worked with each other and we have found so much in common with each other rather than possible in this United States and as I said at the very beginning this is just a start I'm going to make a plug now to the distinguished presidents of the RDS at the University but he and I might agree that we will continue this partnership not only in the area of climate smart agriculture but in a larger ambition that we have in the whole area being climate smart and that is to say I would want this to go on with climate smart transport I want it to go with climate smart cities and I also want us to get into something very tricky and very difficult and that is climate smart energy and I say this to somebody and I will admit to this having been a sinner in the past I was chairman of Board of Honour for ten years once under my chairmanship we built the first wind farm in Ireland and got it probably twenty-five years ago but it has also been a member of Montaschke for forty years so we are going to get involved in climate smart energy and it is that combination of energy and I am a climate smart agriculture I think that will have the biggest impact on our ability to not only meet our emissions targets but to exceed them because ultimately we have got to get through a carbon neutral economy in a carbon neutral society that is the great challenge that is ahead of us this has been a start I think it is a great start and we could not have had better partners thank you very much for your well chosen words look I am not going to name which now of course just make a few personal comments on the whole process first of all I would have to agree with Tom Ireland that we experienced during this process first of all it was very good listening people listened respectfully to each other's points of view and helped to develop the points of view and develop the discussion second thing was the quality of science and I personally have not spent a career in chagas and the powerful agriculture I was really impressed to see how the quality of the science here in Ireland has developed over the last ten, fifteen years the one negative I would have on this one is that already we have lost some of that team of experts that we have built up here over the last ten, fifteen years some serious members of that team have been lost quite recently to the team and for Roger Shote he gave an amazing presentation out in the IEA and he has gone other people have moved on in their careers as well and I think it is important that we continue to develop the capacity of Ireland to focus science on the challenges facing this country because some of them are quite unique we really need to reinforce our scientific capacity here just again and last thing I would like to thank everybody who helped us and assisted us over the last eighteen months during this project obviously the two ministers Simon Colby who launched the process I am going to plead now who launched the report obviously it has been a pleasure for me to work with the IEA Tom Ireland and myself go back a long way we both care to remember but it was great to re-engage on this topic as both organizations have been very keen to do something about it again the participants and the advisory committee and the participants in their workshops came along, gave us their time gave us their expertise Joe Curtin I think deserves a very special mention Joe did a novel of the working houses drafting organization drafting and all the rest and took, I say, we carefully diverted any stick towards Joe so Joe deserves our credit and thanks for all his work Paul Farley in the RDS Paul has been an absolute wonderful help and supporter and as we know he's committed to agriculture and rural affairs in the RDS so thank you very much for coming on today read the report and I hope you get something useful out of it thank you very much