Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the discussion so far and I wish to correct a few points. It is not true to say the present Government has avoided the heavy lifting and done nothing. It has done everything that could and should be done and it has recognised the challenges in front of us. However, there is a problem, of which we saw some evidence today. Someone made a mistake in calculations somewhere and those calculations seem to indicate we have to do more and that what has been done to counter climate change so far is not enough. I am not sure about that. I have lived in this country as long as most other people and this is the point. If we exert ourselves to the extent that we try to do more than we can afford, there will be a backlash. That is already beginning to be seen in Germany, France and across Europe. If we want to go that route, that is fine, but I do not advise it. It is counter-productive. We will achieve much more by leading the people than pushing them in a particular direction.

I will go back to a point I mentioned at a meeting earlier today. Someone suggested that a mistake was made somewhere and as a result we are behind in our targets and we will have to do more. I have been an observer of economic and social events for a number of years and there comes a time when we have to ask whether we can do more and whether we are in a financial position to do more. Do we break the country by attempting to force it to do more? Do we divide the country and do we leave ourselves exposed? Do we damage the agrifood sector to such an extent that it will no longer be able to cater for the food requirements of the country? That sector currently contributes 40% of the food requirements all around us. I say this in the knowledge that I know what we have to do. We have to take steps to counter climate change and ensure we take the steps on time. However, we cannot take the steps to the extent that we break ourselves.

One example is hanging around while turloughs flood the houses adjacent to them and saying people should not have built their houses there and we must find an environmental way of dealing with it. There is an environmental way. We should use drainage. We have not used drainage in 50 or 60 years. That is a fact of life. It involves arterial drainage, cleaning rivers and allowing the water to flow away.

We have lost that art to a huge extent. I have noted recently the degree to which imported food is visible in our supermarkets because we are not able to supply it ourselves. There is a combination of reasons for that, including that we had a terribly wet season last year. There was water everywhere. You could drink it if you wanted to, but it would not be safe. We need to address this in a fundamental way that will achieve the targets necessary and that will not extend the strength of the people and the economy beyond their reach. If we do so, we will break the economy, ourselves and our resolve. It does not work that way.

It is no good saying "There is a fool who does not know what he is talking about". I have lived in this country as long as anyone else. I have seen all the trends over the years. I have seen the appalling weather conditions that prevailed in the past - I mentioned this earlier today - in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s were good. We were all told in the 1970s that we would have a different climate, it would be much easier in the future and there would be more fine weather with more sunshine. That stopped at the end of the 1970s. We had a couple of years after that and we certainly did not have it last year. What did we get? We are told it was the hottest year on record. If we go into the supermarkets and look at the products produced during the hottest year on record, there is ample evidence that the products were produced on flooded lands. We are told that flood plains are important and it is important that the flood goes somewhere when it has nowhere else to go, but nothing is as important as arterial drainage to contain flooding as much as possible. The Netherlands was already mentioned. The Dutch have been living in a situation since the 1950s which they have controlled effectively.

We have to make changes to accommodate climatic issues that are taking place. We have to do the best we can. We should not, nor can we, break our economy in the process. It would be ludicrous to do so and we will pay a very high price for that. The kind of price we are talking about is the demonstrations by concerned agrifood producers we see across Europe at present.

I will finish with this. I used to make my living in the contracting business once upon a time. In the old days, farmers ploughed the fields. That meant using the conventional plough to turn over the soil and once that was done, there was a drainage system underneath, which helped to aerate the soil and improve its productivity. That does not happen to any great extent anymore because we are in the era of the one-pass sowing system. That means that the French drains that were plentiful once upon a time - for the past 200 years - do not work anymore, because heavy machinery has forced them downward and out of existence. That is fine. If we want to go on that way, we can do so. However, unless we ensure adequate drainage for the land to dry out, productive capacity will be dramatically reduced. You may say these are the meanderings of an old guy who does not know what he is talking about, but I lived with it and I did it.