Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for letting me in. There has been all sorts of business here today so I was unable to stay for the discussion, but I read with real interest and listened to the presentation from Meat Industry Ireland. I also read the two other presentations. I am very much at one with what the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association said in its presentation. It is the right approach to Irish agriculture and is in tune with what I see happening in or what I hear from the European Commission and indeed Commissioner Hogan when he spoke at Food Wise. The association's broad review of what we need to do not just in farming but also in forestry is particularly useful. I will concentrate on forestry. The association is right in terms of the switch to a completely different mode of forestry, as I read the association's presentation, so that we do not just grow forestry for lumber but see it as a carbon storage system, an aid to biodiversity, a leisure development and helping with our water management. As the association says in its presentation, this is a move away from the system we have at the moment towards continuous cover and using alder, ash, rowan and a range of native species.

I think the association said somewhere else that when we get the value in that carbon sequestration, which will have an increasing value, the value should accrue to the county where the carbon is stored. That is a critical element in the switch to a new form of forestry. Our ambition should be 20,000 ha of that type of forestry so that we are not isolating communities in the likes of Leitrim and elsewhere where there is real public concern at the moment.

If I am reading the food production side of the association's presentation correctly, and I apologise if I am simplifying it, my understanding of where the Commission will go in terms of asking countries to come forward with new approaches to the CAP is that it will be looking for exactly this type of farming, which is more diversified, is all about soil husbandry and goes back in some ways to the old ways where rotational farming and less reliance on single markets was the way to go. If there is a divide in the country in farming between the north and west and the south and east, and there probably is in land terms, it may favour the north and west. I was talking to my colleague beside me and said that this is what we need to do. That is where the help and resources are needed. I very much support the analysis and general approach of the association.

I do not want to be deeply critical of Meat Industry Ireland's presentation but it seemed to be taking the country in a different direction towards a much more intensified reliance on international commodity markets and a much more capital and carbon-intensive agricultural system. We had very interesting discussions with members of the farming and environmental communities. My concern is that we are running the risk, particularly from an EU perspective, of being seen not to play our part in the climate challenge we face. We are a country that is getting a lot of favours with regard to Brexit and corporate tax. My concern is that at some point we are going to be told we are not going to get off on agriculture and land use. That is just my assessment of what I hear in Brussels from the broad stream of the environmental community. I hear that they increasingly talk about us in that way. They talk about us with regard to agriculture the way they talk about Poland with regard to coal. It is of deep concern to this country that our reputation as a green country and an Origin Green producer, which is a valid one, is in fear of becoming really damaged by international sentiment that we are not doing that. I do not believe that continuous assessment of the efficiency of Irish agriculture per kilogramme is a valid argument in response to those European concerns. I listened to Professor John Sweeney, one of our best climate scientists, say that it is the cumulative quantity of carbon that is key, not efficiency. I think we have had an additional 400,000 cattle in the past year or so. Each is equivalent to an SUV on the road in carbon terms. If we keep going in this intensified numbers game, we will run into a climate backlash that will have profound consequences for the marketing of food from this country abroad and indeed our whole trading system.

It is not an attack on Irish agriculture. I agree with what I read in the presentation by the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association. We must move away from a war between the environmental movement and the farming community. It is in both our interests to work together because farmers will be on the front line of our climate response, flood management and biodiversity protection. They are the protectors of our environment. Young farmers are starting to think and experiment that way. The reason I am critical of a reliance on the old system, particularly in the beef and dairy sectors, is because it is not serving farmers. I was startled when I looked at some of the figures yesterday relating to average incomes for Irish farmers compared with those of Danish, Dutch and German farmers. They are getting twice the income so it may be serving the meat industry but I do not think it is serving Irish farming in terms of getting real incomes. I think the Natura approach, which is one I would support, will provide a better future in terms of paying Irish farmers because we will paying them for carbon, biodiversity and flood management as well as paying them for food production.

I think our metric here is not just on carbon.

We cannot just obsess about the carbon. We have to look at the social aspect to this. The other concern I have is about protecting, and keeping to, the old ways. The average age of the Irish farmer is now 55. It is almost impossible for young people, as I understand it, unless they are directly connected to a farm, to get into farming. Sons or daughters of farmers are increasingly not going into farming. They see those figures in terms of income levels and they see it is not as rewarding as it should be. I very much appreciate the chance to add those few thoughts on the basis of what I have read here but I will look back on the video of the meeting. Despite my critical comments, and I do not want to be in any way personally critical about it, I respect the meat industry's right and interest in terms of presenting its case. However, we need to have some forum where the environmental movement sits down with the farming and food industries and works out, as best they can, what interests we have in common. It is about getting young farmers involved, it is about fewer inputs which is more profits for farmers, it is about getting payments for all that new form of forestry and new form of carbon storage and, critically, it is about making sure that money goes to Donegal, Roscommon, Mayo and Leitrim, that quarter of the country, in particular.

I would like to go back to the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association presentation. Professor John Sweeney, our best climate scientist, has said that what we are going to see with climate change is the north and west getting hit with worse weather - unfortunately, with wetter winters and more intense weather events. Friends of mine, farming in Donegal and elsewhere, have told me they have not seen anything like last summer and the last nine months with non-stop rain. The south and east will have different problems, and will probably be drier. We have a common interest in addressing this climate challenge together, but addressing it with a view to social revival, a revival of rural Ireland. A green approach in high quality continuous-cover forestry, in keeping carbon in the ground, including peat, critically, and in flood management is where we can and should go. The food we will sell out of that system and the tourists we will bring in from that system will also help revive rural Ireland.