Focus on cutting herd numbers is 'too narrow' to cut emissions, says Taoiseach

Micheál Martin has clashed with Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae, who claimed that the Taoiseach is 'out there that you’re going to reduce the national herd'. Picture: Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP

Focusing on cutting herd numbers as the central aspect of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions is "too narrow", and the conversation should be much broader than that, the Taoiseach has claimed.

Speaking in Clonmel ahead of the UN climate change event Cop26 in Glasgow next week, Micheál Martin pushed back on scientists' arguments that cattle numbers and the methane they produce are already too high, and are unsustainable if Ireland is to meet its 2030 target of a 51% reduction in emissions.