Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his comments. I am learning something here. I want to focus on agriculture mainly and on the custodians of the land and the opportunity that may be there for them in future.

Forestry has been mentioned as one of the major methods of sequestering carbon. There is a vast amount of forestry in Leitrim. We have more than our fair share at this stage. Almost 30% of the land is covered at this stage. The forestry is mainly Sitka spruce and there is monoculture and so on. I do not intend to get into that discussion with the Minister. I want to talk about some of the issues that could make a major difference but are not currently. For example, every farmer in rural Ireland gets Pillar 1 payments through the Common Agricultural Policy. They are required to submit a map that shows the land parcel. Each land parcel is divided by hedgerow. Farmers submit the land parcel map. They have so many hectares for payments. Then, a photograph is taken from outer space. If the hedgerow happens to be growing out wider and the farmer loses half a metre along the length of the hedgerow, he is penalised and could lose up to 20% of his payment. That is probably 20% of the farmer's income. Indeed, in some cases the payment from Europe is more than 100% of the farmer's farm income. A simple change would be to say that a clump of whins on the side of the field can be included as part of the land parcel rather than immediately punishing farmers for it. Everywhere I go around the country I see hedgerows cut to the stump. Farmers do not want to do that but they are being penalised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for not allowing them to grow.

Another issue I want to raise relates to new sectors. It has been mentioned that we need to develop new sectors in agriculture. The plastics sector is one possibility. Plant cellulose could be used to make plastics that are biodegradable. This will not happen by farmers doing it on their own. To develop a sector large enough to be sustainable in future, farmers need to work in partnership with big business or Government. Will the Minister leave it to the market to find that solution? Is the Government prepared to play a role to ensure that these sectors can develop? Hemp is one obvious material. The hemp sector could provide income for farmers and provide a solution for our biodegradable plastics problem. It could also provide a solution for carbon sequestration.

Another issue is the question of solar panels on the roofs of farm sheds. While I acknowledge it is in the proposals, is the Minister talking about paying for that electricity? At what level will it be paid for? I will leave it at that because I understand we only have a short time.