Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an important group of issues, as regards the climate and nature fund, and we all subscribe to and agree with them. There is, however, some indication that there is a lack of scientific evidence as regards some of the areas on which we spend money or refuse to spend money which are of an environmental or climatic nature. We accept that there is climate change and that it is a serious issue. There have been climate changes in the past and there were serious issues then. In recent days, there was a report from some European group to the effect that they have now decided that the month of April just gone was the hottest month ever. I do not know how they came to that conclusion, but the problem is that there are members of the public who are confused by this and who find themselves asking themselves questions, and we find ourselves having to answer questions when we go to meetings. The problem is that in order to achieve what was alleged to have been the case, they would have had to put the thermometer in the cooker for a half an hour in this country, or else we were not part of the evaluation at all.

As regards the agrifood sector, cereal growing and so on, I saw a well-known grower recently and he made a comment that was very interesting. Effectively, he said we cannot produce what we used to produce. Why? Because it is raining all the time. That is correct. Why is it raining all the time? We have experts who tell us that. I am not so sure that is the only reason. For instance, we had the Covid pandemic here. It was an extraordinary visitation on this country. I am sure it was accidental but I am not so sure that is entirely provable. One of the things we have to do from here on in is prove to the people of this country - the other Europeans have to do this as well - that we are dealing with the situation as it emerges. Across Europe, the farming community, who produce the food for Europe and elsewhere and who are well aware of the reasons the European Union was invented, are now asking questions. They are worried and they are demonstrating, protesting and so on. They are referred to as the far right. They are not the far right. They are nowhere near the far right. They are just faced with situations that affect them directly, and there are farming communities in this country with the same worry.

The last point I will make on that is that when I see people sludging through ploughed fields in wheel tracks 2 ft. deep, there is something wrong. Something has gone wrong with the draining and something has gone wrong with the way we are handling the soil. Soil has to be aerated, the heat has to be encouraged, etc. What do contractors do? What have they done in recent years? In order to grow potatoes, they have taken all the stones out and trapped them in a machine. That is a bad decision. It is bad for drainage, bad for heating the soil and so on. There are areas there that we need to talk about. Incidentally, organic farmers are pissed off about these things. We Government backbenchers do not get to talk about these things at all, except at parliamentary party meetings, and then you are talking to yourself. We need to do something about this. I feel we are sliding inexorably in a direction which will reduce the capacity of the food-producing sector in this country to cater for the need. We will be encouraged to do that by other people who will benefit from it in different situations. The time has come, to my mind, to look at this situation very carefully; otherwise we might find ourselves in a very difficult position in the not-too-distant future.