Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have. We have a very strong commitment to afforestation of agricultural land unlike practically any other country in the EU. We are spending not European money but Irish taxpayers' money - €119 million per year - planting trees on farmland between 6,000 ha. and 7,000 ha. This is a climate change strategy as well as a timber and afforestation strategy. We have challenges and agriculture does not have a free pass but we are doing a lot of good things in agriculture at the moment in terms of the climate change responsibilities we have. People need to look at that with a far more open mind than many people have.

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