Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to voice my concern about what I see as the general bashing and hammering of agriculture in public and media commentary and, at times, at EU level in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. When one looks at it in the round, and Mr. Callanan has described the layers of effort that are being made at every level in terms of farming practice and feed, one can see that every other aspect of farming is being examined and standards are required of farmers who are receiving payments so that their practices reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. I know farmers can vouch for this and when one hears what came out of the Citizens' Assembly, it is a cause for concern. Sometimes it seems that we are having this conversation here and are privy to the data - the very good news about the steps being taken in farming to tackle climate change - but it does not seem to go much further than that. Was Mr. Callanan invited to attend the Citizens' Assembly as an expert? Was anybody from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine who is dealing with this issue hands on invited? Was any other State body such as Teagasc invited? Who presented? That is one side of things.

The other issue is that we need food and we will need more food as our population grows. We are doing it in a carbon-efficient manner and are probably doing it on a greater scale because we are more agriculture-dependent. Agriculture brought us through the recession and is the backbone of our economy. It seems there is a lack of common sense. What input have the witnesses had regarding the Citizens' Assembly? I know witnesses are called before the assembly to give evidence and explain what is happening.

Regarding tackling climate change, I feel there is a philosophy that we are going to turn back the clock and that perhaps we should not take as many flights and we should all use bicycles. I would put in that same bracket the idea that on that basis alone, we will cut back our national herd whether it is the dairy or suckler cow herd. Anybody speaking in the real world has to say that it must be about innovation, knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange. It must be about finding new ways of doing things. It is very disappointing to hear this said about agriculture when we see what is happening in transport across the board. Where many people can take personal responsibility regarding carbon emissions coming from the use of fossil fuels such as oil in transport, they do not choose to do that but they constantly seek out agriculture as this big category that should be brought to task and in some way curtailed to help us achieve this. I do not think it is realistic and there needs to be a very serious debate about this. I appreciate that when we go to the table in Europe and deal with other member states, we must discuss it. We would do so because we have nothing to hide, but while one can modify a car, one cannot modify a cow. Some of it is a bit ridiculous.

When we are attending European summits such as the Paris summit or where we are dealing with other member states, are we seriously being asked to cut our national herd? Is this really being flagged as a serious prospect for this country? One of the witnesses mentioned that it is a key issue being flagged by the EU. If farmers and the general population are to get on board, which is aside from what we are asking people to do in farming, we need to have a conversation that has more common sense when it comes to various industries and how people live their lives and their lifestyles. I would welcome some real answers rather than us all saying how what is happening is terrible and these are the steps we are taking. It must be grounded in reality.