Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

You could not make it up. As I look around me, I see a few people who I know are sane but this House is the most lunatic place in the world at the present time. This is a good piece of blackguarding, to try to get people to pay more for their produce and to try to get producers to get involved in intricate actions to try to account for their carbon footprint. At the same time, this Government cannot put a process in place to measure the carbon that farmers are sequestering. The Government has said that this will not happen until 2027 but now we are being told that we need a carbon footprint label for the products on the shelves, including information on how they got there. It is totally and absolutely unfair. At the same time, the Government is importing peat from Latvia and briquettes from Germany. What is their carbon footprint?

The Government put a working group in charge of the provision of peat for horticulture, which has recommended the resumption of peat harvesting next year up until 2030 or 2035, until a suitable viable alternative is found. It is critically important that this happens to save the 17,000 jobs in the horticultural industry. Dr. Munoo Prasad sent his report to the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, on 20 October last. Where is that report and when is the Government going to act on it? Is the Government going to keep people in the horticultural business in suspense? That is what is going on and now we have this Labour Party Bill, which is supported by Sinn Féin. Some Sinn Féin Deputies say they will vote in favour of the Bill but then they are critical of its contents. As Tom Mike from Kilgarvan would say, if you try to sit on two stools, you will fall down between them. That is what will happen to the Sinn Féin Deputies if they carry on with this. They cannot fool the people by trying to carry the two sides of the road. That is what they are doing here and the Labour Party is trying to suggest that we put more expense on the consumer and more work on the producer-----

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