Mr. Fintan Kelly:

I might address the Senator's point on the role of technology and our emphasis on science. One of our core messages as people who are interested in protecting the environment and the socioeconomic well-being of rural Ireland is that, in examining various policies that the Government adopts nationally and at EU level and while recognising that CAP is the primary financing vehicle for implementing these policies on the ground, we see many different targets but we do not see how CAP will achieve them. We do not see the mechanisms.

We are supportive of technology. If there are technologies that make it easier for farmers to have livelihoods, increase farm incomes and improve the environment, that is fantastic and we want to see them being invested in and implemented. The main problem arises in light of the Climate Change Advisory Council's technical report on carbon budgets. Large reductions in emissions have to be made at national level by 2030. There is a programme for Government target of 51%. Irish agriculture's emissions profile is 32.6% of our total emissions. The council has linked 85% of Ireland's agricultural greenhouse gas emissions directly to cattle, be that in the form of methane, feed or nitrogen fertilisers in support of the feed.

The three most ambitious scenarios that the council has generated for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector involve a reduction in the size of the dairy and suckler herds. As policy analysts and people who are concerned about the future of rural Ireland, we view it, similar to committee members, as an unprecedented level of change in rural Ireland, our socioeconomic well-being and the environment. Other sections of the report set out targets for increasing afforestation from 2,500 ha per annum to 20,000 ha per annum by 2028 and to rewet 110,000 ha of drained organic soils, namely, land that was drained and is now being used for suckler farming, dairy farming, tillage and other such activities.

What the council is telling us is that, as a society, we need to change fundamentally how we manage land and how we farm. These are major changes that are supposed to happen primarily over the lifetime of the current CAP. As conscientious observers and people who have an obligation to speak up not just for the environment, but also for rural communities, we cannot see a roadmap for delivering those changes in the current CAP. That is worrying.

Deputy Collins mentioned that environmentalists seem to be dictating to farmers. We do not want to be seen to be dictating or saying there should be this target or something should be done that way; rather, we are observing a national dialogue with input from expert scientists and multiple objectives that people are trying to achieve across the board, for example, air quality, water quality, biodiversity and protecting farm incomes and the viability of family farms. At the moment, though, we do not see that policy coherence being reflected in CAP. We do not see a plan for how we will achieve these objectives coming through. Combating climate change is not something that we can just decide we will not achieve. It is something that we have to achieve for the well-being of our farmers, our society and the global community.