Mr. John Keane:

I am conscious that I did not get to answer the remaining couple of points from Deputy Bruton. He asked whether consumers will drive change in terms of farming practices. My answer to that is that I really hope so. As we have touched on, we as Irish farmers are recognised as being the best from the environmental, water quality and biodiversity points of view. We recognise that huge improvements can be made on all of those fronts. We know we have a long road to travel to improve standards but right now, we are world leaders. If consumers drive change towards better produce, improved standards and sustainability, that will drive consumers towards Irish produce.

In a global context, it is worrying that given that Irish farmers are as good as we are, policymakers in the European Union are making policies and directing us on a farm to fork strategy and what is required on farms to improve the current situation, while at the same time they are engaging in negotiations with South American countries where traceability, the environmental impact and deforestation are among some of the hot topical issues in those countries.

How do we strike an equilibrium between those two things, from a policy and leadership point of view, on an environmental and international leadership level and bring it back to our country? I find that a difficult square to circle. We could look at the UK market in terms of what we produce here in Ireland, the quality, reliability, traceability and the farm-family model. We could look at the imports coming from Australia. It would be interesting to do that as an example to see whether consumers are driven by price sensitivity or top-quality produce that is safe, traceable and produced on the island of Ireland. I hope consumers drive change in habits towards highly productive and efficient biodiversity and climate-friendly measures that are in practice here already. While recognising that we still have a road to travel, we are world leaders. I hope consumers drive change towards Irish produce.

Sequestration on farms and the leakage of carbon from soil over a long period of time was referred to. It is important to recognise the body of research conducted by Teagasc about ten days ago in its Tullamore research farm. It found that from different soil samples taken, carbon stored per hectare varied from 144 tonnes to 64 tonnes. If that were to be multiplied over the agricultural land across the country, it would mean that about 1,800 mega tonnes of carbon are currently stored in Irish soils under agricultural activity. That is the current level of carbon storage in Irish soils, if one were to take that example and expand it upwards. To put that into context, it is the equivalent about 90 times the annual emissions from agriculture in Ireland. In Macra na Feirme, we have proposals to deal with that. I am probably pre-empting questions that may be asked later on. Many of the members will be aware of the agricultural sustainability support and advice programme, ASSAP, which deals with water quality. It is a voluntary programme that farmers are engaged with in different catchment areas of water basins around the country. In Macra na Feirme, we have proposed that a similar programme is established to deal with farm sequestration in terms of carbon, soils and nutrient practices that coincide with management practices. We foresee that if an advisory programme, a management programme, an assistance and education programme is established around that, it could drive on farm practices. We have seen this first-hand. My farm at home is involved in an ASSAP programme. We have seen advisors on farms and heard their advice, and we have seen a change in practice. If that can be implemented on a broader scale, in terms of carbon sequestration, it could have a major impact on emissions. It is important to recognise that. I posed a question to members of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture about two weeks ago. In terms of our current accounting and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and its overall regulations and accounting, whether we are aligned to the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement, will carbon that is sequestered in soils before 2030 count as mitigation against the emission from agriculture? If the members have any questions on this, they can reach out to us afterwards. I would be happy to engage with them. From my current understanding – granted I bow to the expertise of the committee – is that this is not the case. We have a huge role to play and we can have a major impact if we engage with these practices. As young farmers, we are more than happy to engage with them, but at the end of the day, they must account for something. They need to be liveable, real and deliver on farms and in terms of our emissions profile.