Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that engagement is absolutely key and necessary, and that we cannot achieve what we are trying to do here without the engagement from the farmers. The farmers are the environmental experts. They have been watching climate change happening before their eyes. They know better than anyone else what is happening. They have also seen their incomes under threat. It is so important. We cannot achieve these changes unless we give farmers and people who work in the agrifood industry a way out. They need an alternative and they need new sources of income. As the Deputy stated, there are sources of income other than food production, for example in energy production with wind and solar, in forestry, and in preserving biodiversity. Farmers need those supports. They need the Government and the State to come in behind them to help them. We cannot ask people to change without giving them an alternative and maintaining their incomes.

The Deputy is also absolutely right to point to the agrifood sector as the one pillar of the economy that managed to sustain throughout the last economic crisis, and that food security is vital. There is no alternative to producing our own food. We absolutely must have our own food supply. Farmers play a vital role in society, and this must be respected. Their voices must be listened to in order that we do not produce top-down policies in Dublin and then try to impose them onto farmers. It will involve deep consultation, proper listening, and trying to find ways to create those new income sources to replace the income sources that will change as a result of a major change in the agricultural industry. I am sure that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will step up to the plate and will be deeply involved in this process as the new carbon budget is developed this autumn following the passage of the climate action Bill.

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