Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely correct. It is in our interest as a food-producing country, as well as being in the interests of Irish farmers and the food industry, to embrace the climate and sustainability agenda, and I know very many, if not the vast majority, want to do exactly that. As things change in the coming couple of decades, banks and financial institutions will only lend money to businesses and firms they think are scoring well in terms of climate and sustainability, and consumers increasingly will want to know about the products they are buying and whether those products contributed to the pollution of rivers or to climate change. That is why it makes sense as a food-producing nation that we get on the right side of history in this regard. The comments of the Deputy in that respect are absolutely correct. What we need to do as a Government and a society is work with farmers and bring them and the food industry with us, and that is what we intend to do.

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