Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome yesterday's announcement on agriculture. I agree with convergence, as outlined in Pillar 1.

With Pillar 2, there is much concern among the communities that deliver LEADER that there is a shortfall of approximately €70 million. This is at a time when communities and especially the agricultural sector are stepping up to the mark when it comes to climate action.

In this regard, last Monday a group of us from the agriculture committee visited Devenish Farm in Meath. We spent five or six hours going around the farm looking at how it measured hedgerows and carbon on the trees and how it used different types of grasses. It is a carbon-neutral farm. It is one of the main farms of eight or nine throughout the world picked so different universities can study these matters. To put it simply, it is a private entity.

There are a couple of points between agriculture and climate action. In light of developments we have heard of from the people involved with LEADER and their view that there is a shortfall, will the Government pick up that gap to ensure this programme, which is vital to rural communities, will be delivered?

A private company is able to nail down the amount of carbon sequestered in trees or hedgerows by using light detection and ranging, LiDAR, systems on a helicopter. In the past week or two, I have heard that Teagasc, which gets a lot of money from the State, and the Government are not looking at hedgerows in considering the carbon tonnage sequestered around the country. We are looking at carbon budgets but we still do not know where we are starting because we do not know what is sequestered. It is a damn bad way of doing things and puts pressure on people.

The agricultural community does not mind stepping up to the mark but it does not want to have to act with false figures. Why has the Government not brought in expertise from Devenish Farm, which has done all this work, to help Teagasc or the Government itself to formulate more accurate figures?

My final question relates to electricity supply and power. The Minister stated in the past week in an interview with the farming section of the Irish Independentthat he would not rule out the reopening of Shannonbridge and Lanesborough power stations. Will he elaborate on this and explain what he means?

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