Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Price very much for the presentation. He is saying that what is happening now is wrong and that it is up to us, as policymakers, to create a new vision. It seems, however, that if we are to deliver the Paris commitments, the political challenge will be to bring communities on board. He seems to be saying that we must set a target to cut the herd, but he is not saying that we should set a target to cut oil straight away or set a quota for oil in other sectors. People know that if a quota for oil was set tomorrow, there would be a lot of vulnerable families that would not be able to heat their homes and there would be a lot of industry that would not be able to continue. Mr. Price is proposing that farmers cut their herds while rejecting carbon farming, which would reward them for reducing methane, nitrous oxides or other emissions, but he cannot have it both ways if he wants to contribute to a political solution.

One way or another, we have a large sector that we need to bring on a journey to a better endpoint. Mr. Price is offering a very abrupt solution. As politicians and as member of this committee, we are trying to find a way to meet our Paris commitments while bringing communities with us because we know we cannot deliver without them. I am struggling to see how Mr. Price can sell his approach to a family farm unit at the moment. He is telling them to stop doing a whole lot of things, but he is not going to reward them with an income for providing the better environmental services that would come from a carbon farming model. I know it has challenges and he is right to say that there are measurement and verification issues but surely that has to be the way to provide a pathway so that in ten year's time we will still see prosperous family farms. That is what we need to get to. It is a little bit of a cop out for Mr. Price to present the science and then hand the problem over to the politicians to fix.

I am looking for a bit more guidance because Mr. Price seems to be holding Denmark up as a country that has done it, but then he said that it has done it in the wrong way. He seems to be saying that what the Danes are doing is wrong and that we should not follow them. I am struggling to understand Mr. Price's pathway as one upon which we can bring the farming community.