Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I come from an agricultural background. I am still involved in agriculture. I was this morning, anyway. Agriculture is blamed for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions but we have a great product here – a green grass product that is naturally produced. Forests are being burned in the Amazon at the moment just to create land. While the policy is probably coming from Europe, we are to import from the South American countries. First, those countries have to burn off the land and produce grass on it. We have a natural product here. There is an emissions cost in South America. The finished product there – we are talking about beef – has to be loaded and brought across the whole Atlantic to Europe. Where is the common sense? Where are the policies on all this? We are able to produce beef here naturally. I am talking about farming here and keeping our own industry going. Comparing like with like, what is happening does not make sense to me. It is a lot of nonsense to say we should cut back on what we are producing, 90% of which we export, while bringing in beef from South America. What will be the cost to the environment? Will we have to burn forests to do it? We will have to drag the product half way across the world on the Atlantic Ocean, presumably on diesel-powered ships.

With regard to agriculture, we are not getting enough credit. I am an active farmer. We have green grass and are getting no credits for the grass we are producing, which is a natural product coming out of the ground. We are getting no credits for hedgerows. I bought a new machine two years ago just to trim our hedges and to keep the environment right for biodiversity or wildlife, including birdlife. We are maintaining the hedgerows, yet we are being penalised for producing 30% of the emissions, or so we are told. We get no credits for what we are doing. Should this not be recognised in Europe or among the powers that be? We should be getting credits for maintaining biodiversity, maintaining our hedges and maintaining our growth, in addition to ensuring road safety and maintaining ditches. As a farmer, I believe we are getting an unfair deal through the system and in the way the system is being reported and the statistics are being made up. That is only an opinion. I will ask about this when I get the opportunity. Farmers are getting a raw deal. They are being told their emissions amount to 30% of the greenhouse gases of the whole country, yet they get no credit for maintaining hedgerows and biodiversity in general – the bees and birds. It is a job to get answers.