Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation and I thank the representatives for their submission, which was helpful. Mr. Kelly has just discussed the nub of the issue. The dilemma the committee and the country faces is the alignment of the roadmaps. The agriculture sector is the main driver in our economy in terms of exports, food production and jobs. We need to acknowledge the work being done by Glanbia, Kerry Group and so on. If food production was reduced as a result of targets set by the State, will it be displaced? Where else would the food be produced? What would be the effect on the economy and carbon emissions globally? If targets are set and companies are forced to reduce production, the food will be produced elsewhere because the demand will still be there. Will it be produced, resulting in greater carbon emissions than Ireland produces? This is what the issue boils down to. We must align our roadmaps with national policy and sectoral policy. We cannot say on the one hand we want jobs, exports and food security while, on the other, set targets that will reduce them and result in the food being produced elsewhere while carbon emissions remain at the same level.

There is a dilemma here and as a committee member I am very concerned that the matter needs to be addressed.

I commend the work done on initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in the sector generally with regard to breeding and other areas. However, there is scope for further progress if corporate entities such as the co-operatives, Glanbia and the Kerry Group, would engage more with farming organisations and individual farmers on the ground to make progress with regard to renewable energy. It needs subvention or to be incentivised more. We need initiatives on energy production through the use of methane. We need buy-in from the stakeholders that we need to reduce our carbon emissions generally. Have the witnesses done any work on that area to progress it further?

I am afraid that we will enact legislation and suddenly people will discover we have a big problem and have not done the proactive work we should have done. Is the sector doing proactive work to try to involve the stakeholders, including the farmers and others in the sector? Agriculture and transport are two of biggest contributors to the carbon emissions here. I do not want to undermine that in any way because it is a very productive sector that is driving our economy. We need to be very careful about how we handle this. The nub of the issue is alignment and I would be interested to hear the witnesses' views on that.