Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Martin Browne. Last Monday night, I attended a meeting organised by the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, in the mart in Ballymote, County Sligo. Climate action was one of the issues discussed. Of course, farmers are very exercised by the increase in the cost of inputs, including diesel, and all of the issues that make up the bigger problem we are facing. However, a couple of farmers made the point that the farming community has no problem playing its role in delivering the transition we want to happen and that they know must happen. The real problem they have is that they do not see a commitment to providing them with alternatives. I take my colleague's point that we are not here to bicker. We are here to try to find solutions and we must all do so.

However, a farmer at the meeting made the point that it is six or seven years since he considered putting solar panels on his sheds and there still is no proper means of doing it. There are no grant facilities available and no means by which he can sell the electricity generated back to the grid. There is nothing in place. A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of the OECD at which I spoke to parliamentarians from other countries in Europe. Speaking to some of them, I learned that there are solar panels on every house in countries in eastern Europe that we might consider to be very backward. The governments in all those countries are paying for that to be done and for the electricity to be put back into their grids until such time as the homeowners have paid for the installation, at which point they will generate a profit from it. This usually happens within seven to eight years. Why on earth can we not do that? Why can we not do the simple and easy things? We are here to find solutions and I believe there are solutions to be found.

Going back to the farmers, they have also made the point that they want to change the way they farm. Biodiversity has been mentioned. It is a big part of this endeavour and the farmers are the custodians of the land. Unfortunately, though, they are not being provided with the incentives to farm in that way and to move to a model of farming that is low intensity and has a high nature value. This is what we need to see happening. The transitions we want to see being put in place must be put in place by the Government. The Government must lead on this and it must provide the financial packages that will make it easy for people to sign up to this mode of farming. It has not been doing that up to now.

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