Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will just say one word. Agriculture is so important to Ireland. I recall one point of information that we got from the last expert who spoke to us on the beef sector. The carbon footprint of the beef sector in Ireland is the lowest in Europe, along with that of Austria. We must recognise where good is good but we must recognise that the challenge is to educate society as well.

Wind energy is very important because we import 80% of our fossil fuel. Last weekend I organised a conference in Dublin Castle. There was a protest outside the castle which was covered by the media but there was nothing at all about the benefits of wind energy and how we should be educating people and society about the need for a massive change in society. We as politicians have to ensure we bring society around to a different way of thinking. We need to go forward with new methods. To do that we need help from everyone else, including the media and scientists, to get the facts across about what will happen if we do not do something. We must ensure as politicians that we achieve this realistically because we cannot shut down the economy and say we are going to do A, B and C, which may be ideal, if we cannot pay the mortgage. We have to be balanced. I am not saying this because I do not want to do it. I would love to do it in the morning but we have to be realistic.