Ms Sadhbh O'Neill:

I thank Senator O’Reilly for the question. I will try to be as brief as possible. First, I agree with the Senator that we need to be honest with farmers about the challenges posed by climate action and the biodiversity crisis that we are experiencing in Ireland. We will have to take a close look at our land management practices and make some tough decisions. While I support the principle of a just transition, it is unfortunate that measures that have been designed to support farm incomes have maintained the situation as it is in relation to the beef herd sector for so long. The lesson should be learned that while politicians want to step in and rescue a sector that is undergoing a financial crisis, we must not create a legacy effect or an incumbency that generates more problems in the future with which we must deal. What we can learn from other countries that have done this kind of thing successfully is first to connect producers and consumers. The reality is that we are exporting commodities and we are importing food that we eat. We should look to scenarios where there is much more localised food production. That will involve greater use of horticulture and tillage. It is important to highlight that Teagasc, in its outlook report for 2021, estimates that there will be further decline in the tillage area by 2030. It estimates a drop of another 14%, on top of the decreases that have already taken place.

The current trend is all moving in the wrong direction. We are neither growing the food we need to consume, nor what consumers want to buy. However, there is potential to embrace those kinds of shortened supply chains, to increase the net benefit for farmers and producers directly. Obviously, it increases Ireland’s food security if we produce more of our own food rather than importing it.

The Senator’s second question was on the climate Bill. I agree that the climate Bill is important because of the tight governance structures contained within it. No matter what concerns various groups, including even ourselves, have about the weaknesses in the language, and certain things that are not mentioned at all, the important thing is the mechanism by which the Climate Change Advisory Council now has the authority to propose a carbon budget. That carbon budget is going to embrace the emissions economy-wide. It is going to have to be consistent with the target of 51%. It will at least have to pay heed to Ireland’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. That is ultimately what should drive climate policy: an awareness and appreciation of the global catastrophe that awaits us if we do not take urgent action to reduce emissions and to halt the loss in biodiversity.

I am not an expert in biodiversity, but my colleagues are always keen to highlight to me the potential for various farm practices to improve biodiversity. At the moment, the areas the Senator describes in the west of Ireland, where there is much high-nature value farming, are in decline because of all of these economic pressures. Therefore, we need to make sure that the measures we take to support farmers in transitioning and diversifying continue to support high-nature value farming in those areas.

It is important that the Bill moves swiftly into law, because it will dictate the carbon budgets that are due to come from the Climate Change Advisory Council, the Department and the Minister and then back to the Oireachtas, in the coming months. Therefore, if the Bill is not enacted, that process and timeline will falter. That will lead to yet further delays. As the Senator knows, we have been delaying and delaying in Ireland on climate action for far too long already.

On the Senator’s final question about forestry, I do not have precise numbers for her. However, suffice to say, unfortunately, the forestry sector is also in crisis. Commercial forestry has hit many roadblocks in the licensing process. On the biodiversity side, we have seen major impacts to water quality and biodiversity from the type of commercial forestry planted heretofore. I am a member of the forestry working group. There is a number of different workstreams addressing different parts of the Jo O’Hara report into the Mackinnon report. I am optimistic that it will at least attempt to reconcile the multiple objectives for the sector. However, it remains to be seen whether it can get a new strategy out in time to reverse this pattern of farmers losing interest in forestry, and in less commercial forestry, which is important for timbering construction, as well as for sequestration.

On the environmental and sustainability side, we need to look to trees, wood products and forestry for the multiple benefits that they can provide to biodiversity, air quality, amenity, recreation, timber products, food crops and, even, edible crops from trees. There is so much potential there. We in Ireland seem to have suffered from a lack of vision in relation to forestry for so long. Forestry is so denuded from the landscape that the public has forgotten what trees in the landscape would do for us all. Hopefully, the forest working group will address some of those issues. If the Senator requires some detailed estimates, I can try to find them for her.