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

The twin policy issues for agriculture are how we reduce emissions and sustain farming incomes at the same time. That is the challenge for our agricultural policy and where all our focus will be.

The Deputy is right to say, and I am glad to hear him say, that farmers know there has to be change but that change has to be fair and it has to be explained. We should not do it without having proper evidence. It is not nebulous to collect the right data. Agricultural emissions are much more complex than they are in other sectors. There are pluses and negatives. Obviously there are carbon storage possibilities. Farmers can do so much for the environment, either through wetting, generating electricity, or through forestry. Land use management will be absolutely critical to this. Carrying out the right scientific research is absolutely the right thing to do. The Environmental Protection Agency report was not a policy paper or a political paper but a scientific report. It did not prescribe what we should do; it just laid out its assessment of the evidence and the likely scenarios.

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