Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The all-of-Government action plan on climate change will be published in the very short term. The Deputy referred to the transition for farmers, which is very important. I am sure he will agree that it is also important to state that farming rates at a high level in our carbon emissions only because we are not a very industrialised nation.

Farming rises in the pecking order as a result. The Deputy is correct that we must provide supports to ensure that the changes we have to make to farming are transitional.

With regard to Bord na Móna, I am working closely with it in my capacity as Minister of State in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. I understand what the Deputy said, but Bord na Móna can be the model by which all companies in this country go from brown to green. There are many exciting projects and opportunities in Bord na Móna. I visited its site at Mount Lucas and have had a number of meetings with the company about projects that are in development stage, such as fish farming and wind farming. It has 80,000 ha of land so there is real potential for development and creating jobs in the communities the Deputy mentioned. I am confident that with Bord na Móna we will show how to model a brown company to a green company and create additional jobs.

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