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

Yes. I acknowledge that, but it is not as if there have not been processes around considering our emissions reductions in agriculture. I refer to Ag Climatise. Even if we look at the private sector, what is happening in the food industry is that it is being recognised that companies involved must follow science-based targets. Enterprises, such as Kerry Group, have acknowledged this in the context of their emissions reductions. They have done this not just in the context of their own emissions or those related to the use of their products by customers but also concerning their suppliers' emissions. Those companies have signed up to science-based targets in this context. Therefore, across so many ways, this has been something we have been considering for a long time. We are not coming at this fresh. This work must continue. It is appropriate that it does so and it must work for Irish agriculture. My key understanding and certainty around this issue is that by going green we can pay a whole generation of new people young farmers and foresters well to come into the sector. This endeavour will not work if these measures are just handed down. It must be done by working with the farming community. I am absolutely committed to that and I think they are too.

There has, therefore, not been a lack of engagement. It is contentious and difficult, be it from the environmental side or from the farming side. After the agreement in the summer, no one was saying that it was a great deal for one sector or the other. People have compromised and we acknowledge that. Now, though, this process is focusing on how we can deliver the 25% emissions reduction in a way that encourages a new generation of people to go into farming and allows them to be paid properly. I do not think anyone disagrees with this.