Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is unusual that I speak on an issue, but to speak on two in a day definitely is rare. At the end of my contribution on agriculture earlier, I stated that what was needed was a land use policy and not an agriculture policy. Deputy Eamon Ryan and I attended a conference around this time last year in the Storehouse in Dublin, which he organised, at which we had a lively debate on the issue. There are a couple of points on which all Members should agree, and I welcome the contribution by Deputy Brassil. First, this is a global issue that cannot be tackled by all the large countries or all the small countries but must be tackled by everyone. Ireland has both an opportunity and the capacity to be a global leader in many ways with regard to the entire climate change effort. I refer, for the sake of argument, to the manner in which it is at the forefront of agricultural research and developing more sustainable and efficient agricultural production, but not that alone. The other thing needed is balance in the debate, as simply to choose one route as being the panacea for dealing with climate change would be a mistake. One cannot state absolutely that it will be all wind or all solar, and even if only from an economic point of view, the target must be to eliminate eventually our dependence on fossil fuel. During Deputy Eamon Ryan's absence from the Dáil, on being re-elected in 2011 I was the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture. Its members heard all the stories about the millions, billions or trillions of cubic metres in offshore oil and gas capacity, but the problem was that nobody had found it. The joint committee produced a report on how, were it found and brought ashore, the country could benefit from a revenue point of view. However, it still has not been found and it simply should be parked. It should not be relied on from either a practical or a philosophical point of view and Members should just forget about that.

I believe a mixture of efforts and initiatives can be taken. To take the simple option, which would be to wipe out all the bovines in the country, I note that much of Africa that now is covered in a desert once had bison and other ruminants roaming over it. When they departed, the grass degraded. I note that serious degradation of soil still takes place every year for each man, woman and child on the planet. If managed properly, grass is one of the best options for sequestering carbon. If it is allowed to degrade, it is a net emitter and eventually decays in the ground, at which point the land becomes useless and must be rehabilitated. It is both a soil binder and a sequester and turning land into anything else involves releasing carbon back into the atmosphere. In my first term as a Deputy, I was rapporteur for both the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security and the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in respect of drawing up a report on land use, climate change and forestry. It found that if forestry was allowed to be accounted for in Ireland's calculations, we could bring down our net emissions quite rapidly, literally by the stroke of a pen. However, it was not allowed, although further negotiations obviously have taken place subsequently. Nevertheless, it is important that if one is to accept this is a global effort, where we can produce food in a sustainable way - in many cases in the most sustainable way - we should be allowed to do it and should get some form of credit for doing it.

I again agree with Deputy Eamon Ryan that agriculture should not be exempted, as to so do would mean that a sector that can contribute to everything else would be exempted. The three major emitters are agriculture, energy and transport, and if we have a total land use policy and if electricity is meant to be the best and most efficient fuel for energy and transport available, it must come from somewhere. As storage is an issue, we can get more cars. We can use off-peak wind at night when it is not needed to pump up the water in Turlough Hill power station to have a reserve of clean electricity. I note that while that station was off the grid for almost two years when being recommissioned after almost 40 years in service, the price of electricity rose significantly. However, were one to try to put in place two more facilities like Turlough Hill, there would be an outcry. This is already evident where onshore wind capacity is being developed, and community buy-in must be introduced. The reason it works in other countries is that from the outset, community participation and community benefit is perceived to be part and parcel of the deal. Consequently, nobody, be it the ESB, a private developer, Bord na Móna or anybody else comes into an area without stating what is in it for the community concerned, and eventually those communities are rewarded for being part of the effort. The same is true for biofuel plants and all sorts of recycling of waste that can be undertaken using new technology. This would be instead of being obliged to pay for such waste to be taken away, whereby somebody else gets paid to turn it into energy. These are the types of honest debates Members must have. Another recent announcement is that as an initial phase, a number of compressed natural gas, CNG, depots are to be set up around the country for trucks and vehicles. The eventual roll-out will put in place such depots nationwide, with the result that cars can be used. While this still involves fossil fuel, it certainly is a cleaner fuel than some of the other fossil fuels on which we depend, namely, oil and coal.

I believe I have touched on all the points. We produce food and Bord Bia has given Ireland the Origin Green label. Moreover, the Food Harvest 2020 objectives, followed by the Food Wise 2025 initiative, stated we should be smart, green and clean. These objectives can relate both to the way in which the food is produced and to the energy it produces as part of the overall effort. I will revert to what I stated at the outset, which is that a land use policy is the key in this regard. Regardless of whether such land is used for a wind farm, a solar farm, a biofuel farm or a cattle farm, balance and rational thinking certainly is the way it should be developed.

As for forestry, I acknowledge that we certainly are lagging behind in respect of afforestation. As I speak, people are planting an area of ground of mine. In the middle of that area, which is a bog, there is a quantity of bog oak, or bog deal, as some people call it. Those trees have been there since the Ice Age and go further back than the time Deputy Danny Healy-Rae mentioned. They go back far into the BC era, as it is called. That bog oak is still there and is hard as nails. It was created when a big glacier went through the valley, levelled the trees and left them there. Today, I have men planting that ground again with Douglas fir, Scots pine, alder and sitka spruce. As somebody somewhere along the way will feel it, I hope I am contributing to the global effort on greenhouse gas reduction.

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