Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking the debate. I want to speak on several aspects of climate change, namely, renewable energy and the future diversification of farming. We need to reduce our dependence on coal and peat. We are 13% higher in producing energy from those two sources than the average EU country and we need to catch up rapidly to avoid penalties for not reaching our emission targets.

The proposal in the action plan on climate change is to produce 70% renewable energy by 2030. This will involve solar and wind energy, and wind energy in particular. Land-based wind is the most common form of wind energy at present but we need to look at the production of offshore wind power. Moneypoint will cease burning coal by 2025. In reality, it has ceased burning coal almost exclusively and is held in reserve. The ESB is reducing the workforce in Moneypoint from 194 to fewer than 100 and negotiations are taking place on redundancies. We need to use Moneypoint because it is an essential part of the national grid. Offshore wind is an ideal energy source to be channelled through Moneypoint to the 400 kV lines bringing electricity throughout the country. I urge the Minister to promote the development of offshore wind energy both in the Irish Sea and off the west coast in particular, where there is an abundance of wind and the opportunity to generate wind energy. There is also an opportunity to generate wave and tidal energy. I understand the technology has not reached a level where it can be used but there should be huge investment in the coming years prior to 2025.

We need major investment in the development of offshore wind, tide and wave energy off the west coast. That energy should be channelled through Moneypoint, keeping Moneypoint as an integral part of our national grid.

We also need to eliminate the use of peat in energy generation by 2028. That will result in substantial job losses in Moneypoint and in the midlands in the areas surrounding those peat generation stations. I know that will be referred to in the debate later this evening. We have met in west Clare and asked that a task force be set up to develop alternative energy sources to be channelled through wind. That will involve several Departments, the local authority, local representatives, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to come together in a task force to devise an alternative future for Moneypoint.

We also need to look at microgeneration. The future lies in microgeneration, incorporating solar panels on new house builds, and also introducing microgeneration to existing houses so that people can generate energy and feed it into the grid if they produce excess energy.

On farming, the climate action plan has a proposal for increased afforestation and wetting of our peatlands so that they become carbon sinks to capture carbon. We need diversification away from livestock and perhaps a reduction in the national herd. I believe that CAP 2020 will promote sustainable farming, diversification in farming, promoting carbon sinks and changing farming practices, reducing use of fertiliser and spreading of slurry. This will require farmers to change their focus, move away from exclusively dealing in livestock and adopt a future way of working which involves diversification.

In that regard, I draw the House's attention to two initiatives in the Burren. The first is the Burren life project which has been promoted and developed by Brendan Dunford. It is an extremely effective ecological way of farming. The other is a recently formed entity, the Burren Ecotourism Network, to develop sustainable tourism, which is led by Jarleth O'Dwyer.

The Burren life project is a unique project which allows farmers to farm in a conservation-friendly way. It supports biodiversity and maintains the built and natural environment within the Burren. It is a sustainable agricultural management programme within the Burren. It places farmers at the centre of the conservation agenda, which is critical. Over 200 farmers in the Burren are involved in the Burren life project covering an area of 15,000 ha. Within that area there is a significant repository of unique habitat - archaeological habitat and also the flora and fauna that are unique to the Burren. This allows the Burren to deliver a tourism product that is extremely beneficial to the community.

I am sure the Minister is familiar with the Burren; certainly his brother is familiar with it because he uses the winterage in the Burren to look after his livestock there. It is a unique farming system where the cattle are out all year round, but paradoxically the cattle are driven to the high Burren in the winter where they can feed on the natural grasslands in the limestone fields and the limestone habitat of the Burren. They are then brought down to the lower Burren in the summer for finishing. There has been the development of a specific nutritional feed to finish those cattle in the spring. It is a unique, traditional way of farming that has gone on for over 1,000 years but it was lost in the 1970s when CAP came in and there was a push towards intensified farming, which tended to destroy the natural habitat in the Burren. That has been redressed by the Burren life project led by Brendan Dunford. Each farm is given a management plan and once farmers have fulfilled the tasks within the management plan they get extra supports to develop their farm to maintain the structure of the Burren, to maintain the walls in the Burren and to cut back on the scrub in the Burren, which allows biodiversity to occur. It has led to a 61% reduction in silage and allows farmers to bring water up to the high Burren where there is no water because of the limestone pavement.

There is a management structure which is sustainable. It also allows a very high-quality product to be produced. It allows farmers to increase their livestock by up to 50%. Many of these are small farmers who may be moving from five cattle to eight cattle or ten cattle to 15 cattle. It allows them to increase their income and improve their livelihood.

This project has attracted international attention. The management system behind the project can be transposed into managing olive farms in Spain to bring back traditional farming across Europe in whatever sphere. It is a very important project and it allows for biodiversity. Farming in the future, not only in the Burren but elsewhere, will need to look at diversification away from the traditional high-intensity farming that we have today and diversifying into other forms of farming to maintain our environment and to meet our climate-change targets.

See this speech in context