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

I hope so. I thank and congratulate a number of Deputies who made their maiden speeches on this debate. I agree with some Deputies who stated that we needed longer debates on agriculture and all matters linked to it. I hope that we will have an opportunity to do so in future. Regardless of what part of this Chamber I will be standing on, I would welcome that.

Many issues have been touched on and I would like to answer them in detail. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked specific questions. We did not deal with fishing at the Council meeting last week because it focused on milk prices but the issue that he raised is one of concern for the fishing industry. We changed a statutory instrument significantly to take account of the industry's concerns about the previous statutory instrument but we will have a long opportunity to debate the issue because whoever will be the future Minister in my Department will be required to introduce primary legislation to deal with the question of penalty points thoroughly. At that point, there will be a full opportunity to tease through the issue, as part of which there will be full consultation. I will be starting that consultation in the coming weeks. There will be an opportunity for debate and we will not have to rush it on 6 April or whenever. We will go though the full legislative process.

Regarding pigs, there is a payment of €3,000 per farm. The closing date for applications for that payment was 9 March. We will get that payment out as quickly as we can for pigmeat farmers who are facing difficulties.

Regarding some of the broad principles, I encourage those who are criticising Ireland's current agriculture strategy from the point of view of sustainability or climate change to read Food Wise 2025, in which we make clear that sustainability is just as important as productivity in terms for planning, policy and financing the modernisation, change and technological advancements that are happening, and need to happen, in agriculture. I am in the business of ensuring that family farms can stay on the land, be they small, medium or large, and that we help farmers in disadvantaged areas as well as those who are lucky enough to have fertile land. Consider my decisions on how to allocate resources. We have prioritised farmers in disadvantaged areas. We have changed the criteria for entrance into GLAS across two application phases so as to ensure a broad response in terms of environmental measures, which we are using EU and national funds to pay for as part of the rural development programme. We are required to do that. This is a significant scheme.

There was criticism of the beef genomics scheme but we will spend €300 million supporting suckler beef farmers through it. We will help them to put better breeding programmes in place so as to produce animals that grow faster, are more efficient and produce less methane in their lifetimes. The €300 million spend, more than half of which comprises EU funds, is a climate change measure for the beef industry. When people discuss agriculture as if it is doing nothing for the climate change challenge, I say that we are arguably doing more in agriculture in Ireland than any other country in the world.

The majority of the funds we are spending under the rural development programme are actually devoted to the environment and climate change. Some 46,000 beef farmers in Ireland are currently measuring the carbon footprint of their herds on their farms. No other country in the world is even talking about doing that, yet we are doing it. All 17,000 dairy farmers in the country have, through their farming organisations, signed up to sustainability audits that will measure emissions and feed conversion efficiency and ensure animal husbandry is of an acceptable standard.

Since 1990, Irish agriculture emissions have actually reduced by 10% while transport emissions have increased by 119%. That said, we need to do more to meet climate change and environmental challenges in agriculture and we must constantly ensure we are setting standards and doing more. However, we also need to recognise the progress that is being made in this area. We can do a lot through technology and we can show other parts of the world how to produce food in a much more efficient way. That is why we have spoken to the World Bank about what Ireland is doing and how we can transfer knowledge to other parts of the world. We have spoken to the World Wildlife Fund for the same reason.

I am protective of our industry when people criticise farmers for not doing enough for the environment or to meet the climate change challenge Ireland must face along with every other developed country. We are doing a lot in this area but we need to and will do more, but let us recognise the progress that has been made over the past five years in particular.

There are sectors under real pressure at present. I look forward to the opportunity to have more debates on agriculture and more time to debate many of these issues. The food industry, the agri-food industry and agriculture comprise the most important sector of the Irish economy. It provides livelihoods in every parish, from Donegal to Cork and everywhere between. We need to protect that and invest in it, and we need policies that are progressive. We need to challenge farmers when they need to be challenged but we also need to support them and keep them in business. Over the past five years, we have had a reasonable balance in ensuring that what we are doing is progressive and taking opportunities that exist, but also ensuring a change in attitude to sustainability, the protection of the environment and meeting the climate change challenges. Who would have thought that farmers would be actively measuring the carbon footprint of their own herds on their own land regularly and inviting audit teams to assess independently and certify internationally, through the UK Carbon Trust, the efficiency of their meat and dairy production from an emissions perspective? Who would have thought that ten years ago or even seven years ago? Now we are doing it. We need to protect these sectors. We are spending approximately €12.5 billion doing so under the new Common Agricultural Policy. We need to ensure the money is well spent and well focused, keeps people on the land and in business, and protects family farming, not large corporations.

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