Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann shall consider the Report of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine entitled ‘Report on Land Use – maximising its potential’ which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 20th November, 2014.

I am grateful for the opportunity to outline the context, background and conclusion of the report of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I welcome the fact the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Tom Hayes, is in the Chamber to make his observations on the report.

The joint committee was determined that a range of stakeholders from Ireland be heard at this early stage of discussions on land use so that outcomes can more effectively be influenced. One expert at our hearings noted that changing land use is a slow process not only in Ireland but internationally and early engagement is required in the process because it is difficult to manage. We are looking at a time horizon of between 2020 and 2050. The European Commission is preparing a land use directive aimed at dealing with the challenges all of us will face in the future. The committee would like Ireland to be in a position to inform this process from the outset rather than respond to it from a defensive position in several years' time.

Over a series of hearings held last year, the committee examined how best to balance four key demands on our land, namely, increasing food production under Food Harvest 2020, offsetting carbon, providing clean water and protecting habitats for biodiversity. We benefitted from hearing the perspectives of prominent experts in Coillte, Teagasc, Directorates General of the European Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, UCD's school of agriculture, food and science and Bord na Móna. Their contributions played a key role in formulating the report and I thank them for their participation.

I am particularly grateful for the assistance of the offices of the Directorates General in Europe, with which we engaged by means of a conference meeting in the committee rooms. We found this engagement very useful and it is something that works well.

The cross-party report found that reaching our Food Harvest 2020 targets while staying within the environmental limits will be a major challenge. However, with requisite Government commitment and support from the farming community, the committee is confident the shorter-term challenges can be met. The committee acknowledged the importance of sustainable agriculture and land use, including afforestation, and the use of agricultural soil to create carbon sinks as key considerations in ensuring coherence between the EU's food security and climate change objectives. There are various programmes in place across the agricultural sector that can be harnessed to maximise land use. Numerous studies are ongoing and it has been highlighted repeatedly that education and knowledge transfer are key to seeing the newest and most innovative systems and technologies put to use at farm level. Emphasising financial rewards for farmers as well as the environmental benefits of the various methods will help to maximise land use potential.

With these issues in mind, the report includes several key findings. We recommend that there be further assessment of concepts such as sustainable intensification, which has become something of a buzzword but is none the less relevant, and offsetting our land sharing, with a view to putting such concepts into practice where possible. In Wicklow, to give an example, we have a great deal of highly productive land but also a lot of land that is not interfered with. These are natural habitats, including land under forestation, which could be used to offset the carbon output of more productive land by acting as very valuable carbon sinks. The report recommends the provision of grants for afforestation and bio-energy crops. There is a recommendation to harness the high-technology schemes and greening measure proposed under the new Common Agricultural Policy, which, for the first time ever, acknowledges environmental and greening measures as part of the payments under Pillar 1. We point to the need to foster knowledge transfer to farmers through upskilling for all agricultural and environmental farm advisers. The committee concluded that discussion groups, in particular, are a valuable way of getting knowledge across to as large a cohort as possible in the fastest and most efficient way. The report recommends that we encourage the use of the such groups and include demonstration farms for this purpose. At farm level, the report recommends supporting the use of low-carbon food tools such as the carbon navigator, nutrient management planning and the implementation of best practice through participation in better farm programmes.

The committee's report was prepared shortly before an agreement was reached on a new EU climate and energy policy framework for the period to 2030 at a meeting of the European Council which took place on 23 and 24 October last year. EU leaders agreed at that meeting to target a reduction in domestic greenhouse gasses of at least 40% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. Agreement was also reached to build on the main building blocks of the 2030 policy framework for climate change energy as proposed by the European Commission in January 2014. The 2030 policy framework aims to make the European Union's economy and energy systems more competitive, secure and sustainable, and sets a target of at least 27% for energy savings by 2030.

The conclusions of the Council meeting acknowledged the importance of sustainable agriculture and sustainable practices in the land use sector, including afforestation, as a key consideration in ensuring coherence between the EU's food security and climate change objectives. In this context, the committee's report is very important and worthwhile in drawing attention to the research in regard to carbon sequestration through restoration of cutaway bogs and by soils and vegetation through changes in farming practices. The committee heard during its hearings that changing land use is a slow process. Changing policy in this regard is the beginning of it, but changing habits is a slower thing. Every country requires an early management strategy in this regard because it is a difficult process to manage. That is why the committee decided to conduct hearings on the matter and publish a report.

It is not surprising that a new wave of discussion and debate followed the publication of the European Council's decisions. All the expert opinion suggests that we will need increased food production from the same land base or possibly a land base that is reduced as a consequence of water challenges across the globe. Indeed, the conflict between water use for food and water use for people will, in come areas of high-density population, become a very competitive one and it may not be possible to satisfy everybody. We will see, in the coming years, new technologies and innovation in regard to the production of food - proteins, in particular - from both land and sea. It is important that facts rather than perception are the basis for this debate. We must discuss the issues honestly and embrace everything the land in this country has to offer as a resource which can be utilised to mitigate carbon emissions and climate change. Reducing output with a view to achieving a reduction in our overall emissions is simplistic. As it is often noted, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. We in Ireland have one of the most efficient food production systems, from a carbon emissions point of view, particularly in the case of milk and beef. We should protect those systems. Nothing will be achieved by cutting our emissions if the food that is needed in the future is produced elsewhere at a greater cost to the environment.

I thank all members of the committee for their engagement on this issue and the various witnesses who appeared before us and assisted us in our work. I thank, too, the staff of the Oireachtas library and research service and the committee secretariat for their support in producing this valuable and important report. It is important that we are examining these matters at the policy formation stage rather than reacting to a policy that is already published.

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