Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. The subject of climate change ten or 15 years ago was easily framed as a kind of radicalist and environmentalist issue, which is no longer the case. I give credit where it is due to the Green Party for bringing climate change right to the heart of political debate in this country. While the importance of the subject may have dawned on us at some point, the existence of the Green Party in politics has made us think long and hard about the impact climate change may have on future generations.

My party and I understand the responsibility we share to hand on the Earth intact and unspoiled to our children and grandchildren. That ambition can run alongside another ambition of mine that when my child and his peers leave college in ten years, they will enter an Ireland that will offer the opportunity to make a life for themselves in the communities, towns and villages in which they were born. Those two ambitions are not mutually exclusive and I welcome the general thrust of what the Green Party is trying to achieve. I am almost in a position to side with it but there are elements which concern me deeply.

Senator Mark Dearey, who was here a few minutes ago, has left the Chamber. In his other life he is a creator of jobs in his home in Dundalk. Is there another way of getting to where we all want to go without having to rush through this Bill, which is what we are doing today and will do over the coming weeks, and without first examining the impact it will have on job creation and agriculture in this country?

Many groups, including the Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, have expressed serious reservations about the impact of this legislation. It is important for legislators to take on board such reservations now, engage with the groups and address their genuine fears. This is not the way to go about it. The consultative process that has been put in place has not even concluded and before it has, we seem to think it proper to begin introducing this legislation. We are certainly putting the cart before the horse.

When independent and scientific bodies like Teagasc express serious reservations about the likely impact of this legislation on farming, one must question it. The point was made by Senators O'Brien, Quinn, Coffey and others that placing these kinds of restrictions on agricultural production may lead to an increase in global carbon output. Ireland and New Zealand have been shown in the past ten years to be the two most environmentally friendly food production models in the world. If we restrict the ability of Irish farming to grow and increase the production of what is a high quality and low carbon product, international demand will continue to grow for food and production may move to other locations that simply have no intention of restricting carbon output and are not even in a position at this time to begin putting forward the kind of legislation we are suggesting.

The Irish Farmers' Association has proposed four reasonable amendments to the Bill. It argues first that the provisions of the legislation must not exceed Ireland's international obligations. It requests that agriculture be given direct credit for current and future carbon offsets generated by forestry, bio-energy, permanent grassland and other land uses up to 2020. Further, the IFA argues the Bill must not restrict the growth targets set out in Food Harvest 2020, the most visionary and far-reaching document produced in the lifetime of this Government.