Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Farmers will pay in the region of €25 million in carbon tax in 2021. However, not one cent of those taxes will go back into the agriculture sector to help reduce emissions. Agriculture sector farmers will pay €80 million a year towards carbon tax. More than 2 million calves will be born in Ireland this year, on top of the 2 million that were born last year. Some 27% of those calves were not exported. The UK Minister has not ruled out taking in beef from the US. South American beef is not the answer we want to hear for Europe. The UK is our biggest market for food exports, amounting to €4.5 billion. The cost of feed for animals has risen by 25% with recent EU import duty. Some 10,000 acres of tillage has transferred to dairy farming this year. This has a knock-on effect on the production of straw. Farmers are being asked to mulch straw back into the soil and are competing with mushroom growers who have no access to peat. At the same time, EU regulations are demanding that the national herd is reduced by 5%. All of these things have knock-on effects.

There must be a market and means for transporting live animals. This is extremely serious. What is the Minister going to do about the surplus of calves? The Minister said that he would be the voice in the Thirty-third Dáil and would answer all of these questions for farmers. I hope he will not let them down on this matter.

See this speech in context