Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Yes, but the weighting of the agriculture sector is my concern. I am a representative of people in Ireland. I note from the document that 28% of our emissions are tradeable, while 72% are not. We will be disproportionately affected because we have accepted this variable according to which methane is 25 times more warming than carbon. Methane in its non-broken down form is 25 times more warming than carbon. Something has to be done because, as a country, we are being unfairly treated owing to the 72%: 28% ratio of non-tradeable and tradeable emissions. Another issue relates to whoever decided it was a good idea to let the people with the ETS tradeable emissions away with it. That seems so unfair to the ordinary person. I understand the science and logic behind it but whereas the big stuff is being managed, which I am never happy about, the smaller stuff is not. Ironically, Ireland is on the back foot because of our lack of industrialisation in that we cannot buy our way out of it. We are being even more disproportionately affected by the methane weighting.

This point may have nothing to do with the witnesses. We want the earth to cool down. There is an idea that food miles do not count. When representatives of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine appeared before this committee a few weeks ago I made a suggestion about some of the larger supermarkets. I was doing some online shopping at the weekend and the vegan section appeared on the website in question before other sections offering balanced diet options. I asked myself whether people believe that eating soya or almonds produced in a country far from here is better for the environment than having a steak? I suggested to the Department witnesses that perhaps there should be an indicator on the packet that one might be eating this low biological value protein or whatever one has found but it has come all the way from Afghanistan on a jet this morning. They suggested that could be considered anti-competitive. If the point is to ensure the environment cools down, that seems to me to be selling our souls to more powerful people. All of this adds up to it being very difficult to bring people with us on this issue. Ordinary people understand that taking one transatlantic flight emits as much as driving a car for a year. They understand that we do not grow quinoa in Kilkenny but other people do not get it. We cannot expect a family to replace their oil heating system with a heat pump when overall they are still producing the same heat.