Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are at the eleventh hour and it is very important that we receive the heads of the Bill, move quickly next year and lead by example.

In his report the Minister has outlined very well what is happening in Africa, central America, the Pacific region and other parts of the world. The threat will not be faced down the line, rather it is being faced now. One does not need to go to these countries to see the effects when for much of the summer one could see water lying in fields of corn on the dry plains of County Kildare. The fact that cornfields in the driest part of the country were under water tells us we have a problem with climate change.

On the issue of indirect land use change, will the Minister outline what he has in mind and what the Council is dealing with? I do not want to stray from the agenda, but this has been a huge issue all year and will be centre stage, not least because of the wet weather conditions. There is a school of thought that was subscribed to by the last Government and the European Union that we should spread slurry based on use of the calendar because that is the best way to protect groundwater and rivers. I questioned this view with the previous Minister who wrote back to tell me that it was based on European weather patterns. I wrote back to him to state Ireland did not experience central European weather patterns. We are living on the edge of the Atlantic and experience daily rain showers and storms. I ask the Minister to use the period of the Presidency to address this matter because it will become a crunch issue in terms of Food Harvest 2020. There will be more intensive livestock farming and higher densities and as such we must deal with this issue. I want to protect the agriculture sector, but we must also protect groundwater. We are in a different position because we have very different weather patterns than in countries in continental Europe, including Germany, France and Belgium. We can show them what weather conditions are like and that they are very different and unpredictable. We, therefore, need to have a different way of proceeding because it is ludicrous that farmers cannot spread slurry at certain times and when they do spread it at the times they are supposed to, it is followed by two or three wet days and the slurry is washed into rivers. As this defeats the purpose completely, I ask that we use the period of the Presidency to address thae issue which the Minister knows will be a major one in the next five to ten years in this State, particularly in the context of Food Harvest 2020.