John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I am due to speak in the Seanad soon. I will return to the meeting after that. I thank the Minister for engaging with us today. I attended the pre-COP conference in Rome a few weeks ago. It annoys me when I hear people, including in both Houses of the Oireachtas, asking what is the point of Ireland introducing such strong climate action legislation when there are so many polluters all around the world who are not playing their part. The fact that we are a small country is not a reason we should not be extremely ambitious. In his speech, the Minister said it gives us a credible voice at the negotiating table. That is why it is so important. With that in mind, I would welcome the Minister's views on the type of support and leadership we can provide to the international community and to small countries like Ireland to introduce really ambitious climate action legislation? I am speaking not about sound bites or solidarity but about meaningful supports we, as a country, can provide to help encourage other small countries to introduce progressive climate action legislation such as we are introducing.

Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan mentioned solar farms. If we want to encourage high uptake of solar in agricultural communities we need to ease some of the barriers for farmers. Due to the changes in the capital acquisitions tax in 2017 farmers lose particular agricultural tax reliefs if more than 50% of their land is leased out for solar panels. Given the required scale for solar panels in this country and the desire that more than 50% of land would be leased out we have to be able to enable farmers to get into this renewable energy transition. What can the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications do in collaboration with other Departments to reduce that tax burden such that farmers can use more than 50% of their land while at the same time not lose out on the capital acquisitions tax?