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

If we are to have a proper bioeconomy we need a wider national land use plan, one which maps our approach to climate change and the biodiversity crisis and recognises that all different end uses are interconnected - what we do in forestry, how we restore peatlands and what type of farming takes place where.

That wider national land use plan would give us a better idea of what limits we can set in the bioeconomy area. We cannot have anaerobic digesters everywhere if it increases levels of ammonia or other pollutants. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Teagasc have opposed such a land use plan. They say we cannot tell farmers what to do. I am not suggesting that the plan should deal with the micro level. However, if we are serious about climate change, we need a wider land use plan. We also need it to get our bioeconomy right and avoid making the mistakes made in the North. Massive supports introduced in the North for the bioeconomy had serious pollution and other effects downstream. The bioeconomy must be framed within a land use plan.

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