Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In the brief few minutes I have, to follow the debate we had last night and the debate we are all having because this is critical for the entire country, urban and rural, I argued last night that we need a national land use plan. The Minister came back and stated that he cannot tell farmers what to do. I do not want to tell farmers what to do. We need farmers who are innovative and good business people. Farmers know best how to manage the land. They know their farms better than anyone else. Far be it from me to tell them exactly what to do, but we need to pay them properly to deliver services we want. We have this opportunity coming up in the CAP reform to pay farmers properly for the key front-line task they have in managing climate, restoring nature, providing high-quality food and protecting water quality. We should pay them properly for doing that.

We need to opt for a truly origin green approach in everything we do. We need to get an origin green premium and pay farmers properly for the services they provide. We do not need to do what they did in New Zealand, which was to have industrial dairy everywhere, trash the land and pollute the waters. New Zealand is now retreating from that strategy, one which, I believe, Fine Gael is leading us towards.

We should learn from what has gone on up North where they have gone down the way of bringing the cattle back into lots. However, low cost, high debt, high capital, not quality and not origin green is not the way we should go. We should opt for high animal welfare, which is what we are close to doing. We have good farmers who manage our cattle. We have traceability and proper measures in that regard. We do not do it by relying on selling cattle who go off on a ship to Libya every time we have a market problem. We do the exact opposite. We make our product something special that meets the highest environmental and welfare standards and gets the higher price.

When I suggested to the Minister last night that organic farming was more profitable he slightly pooh-poohed it and stated that it accounted for only 1% or 2%. I cited Austria, for example, where the figure is 40%. I ask the Minister of State to answer a question. If I am selling organic beef on the market, what is my base price? Is it €4.30 or €4.20 per kilogram? What is wrong with that as a base price? What is wrong with lower input costs and smaller breeds that will mean the farmer will not be up at 5 a.m. pulling a continental bull calf out of a cow with which one can have all sorts of difficulties. There are smaller cattle that might fit on our land without churning it up every time it rains.

This green approach makes sense. It is the best secured model for Irish farming. It belongs to every party in this House. It does not belong to anyone but if we are going out on a brand of Origin Green, let us be really green about how we do it. I am interested to hear what Deputy Healy-Rae and Deputy Fitzmaurice have to say so I will yield to them.

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