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

I firmly believe we should be setting limits in policy to cap the number of cows on dairy farms, for example, to a maximum of 100. The 400 cow farms we often see on arable land could switch the whole country over. What sort of countryside would it create? However, it is not just a matter of the limit. We cannot opt for a Food Wise strategy that sees an increase in emissions, which is where we are going. Environmentally, that is not on; we have to cut our emissions. Even with all of the changes concerning ammonia, urea and lime, Teagasc is still projecting increases in emissions. This has to change. In making the change the environmentalists are the delegates' best ally because there are no better people to say it is wrong that carrots are being sold for 49 cent per kilogramme and to help to create a culture in which farmers have a better income in an environment in which we are reducing our emissions.

Deputy Deering asked about the carbon tax. We have to be careful not to mix up the taxes. There is a carbon tax on the general economy, which is currently €20 per tonne, but that is a separate issue. As we raise that tax, I grant absolutely that we have to look after rural areas by retrofitting rural houses first and investing in public transport for rural areas and so on, but I understood the tax Professor Alan Matthews was considering in his presentation to the Citizens' Assembly was much more specific. It is a tax on the consumption of meat and cheese. I envisage great benefits in reducing waste and it would not be the farmer who would take the cut but the retailers, processors and consumers. If we could be certain that the carbon tax on the consumption of meat and dairy would not be taken from the farmers' share which needs to rise and that the revenue generated would go back into farm incomes, resulting in a net gain for the farming community, as proposed by Professor Matthews, and if we could devise a mechanism whereby the power relations in Irish agriculture changed in order that the farmer would not just be the price-taker taking the hit, would it not help rural development and farming?