Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for taking today's debate. I am little bit puffed because I got the train just a short while ago and as I was pedalling up the quays the Whip's office said my slot was coming up shortly. I was hoping Deputy Bruton would filibuster for a while but there is only so much one can say about agriculture. Happily, I made my speaking slot.

We are now in a space where we have to disclose everything, which is important. I have skin in the game in that I am a farmer in County Clare. I am proud to be in transition to organic since 1 January of this year. Earlier this morning, before I left County Clare, we culled a cow - a 13-year old shorthorn cow. She was a bit lame on her right hind leg. She had been an excellent breeder. She was a fabulous cow that we have looked after for many years. She has been a valued part of our herd but it was time to cull her on humane grounds because her walk was going and she was quite an old member of the herd. I think it makes sense.

When I went to college in Pallaskenry and did the green certificate, the whole concept of culling was very much spoken about. It was about keeping the breeding system in herds vibrant. Never did I hear anyone say that we should actually contemplate culling perfectly good breeding stock or perfectly good milking stock. That needs to be very quickly rowed back on and taken out of the national rhetoric because every time I tune into debates at the moment, there seems to be some discussion about culling some of the national herd or reducing it. In County Clare, where I am from, a lot of farmers have embraced organics and environmental schemes. They are willing to make changes. All these schemes are positive. The Minister has been very good in leading the process and in selling the positive message.

Specifically on the nature restoration law, again there are a lot of positives, but the one thing I cannot fathom how it would work in any practical way is rewetting. It is one thing if a farmer decides to plant all the land with spruce, Scots pine, fir or whatever species of conifer. That does not materially impact on the neighbouring land, but if farmers decide to rewet land, haggards, or whatever land their forefathers and mothers drained and toiled over, the rewetting does not just stop at one's linear boundary. If a farmer rewets 1.5 ft of topsoil and subsoil, that will spill over into neighbouring lands. The mechanics of rewetting as well involve blocking up old drainage systems. It could be an old rotten bale into the drain. Then there is the Bord na Móna system where it has undertaken some rewetting in the midlands. It is absolutely unworkable. I do not think it is practical. It takes out of production a lot of really good valuable land in Ireland. I am glad that Members of Parliament spoke in the debate at the European Parliament last week about how unworkable this particular proposal could be. I hope that in the cycle of European elections – the polling will be around this time next year – this issue will not have made it onto the agenda in a significant way by that time, and that it will fall off the political agenda thereafter.

The Ukrainian war has brought into sharp focus the need for us to have food security, food independence if one likes. That has been underpinned over the last decade where we have seen the population of the Twenty-six Counties increase by 1.2 million. We saw census figures yesterday showing counties in the west with population increases across five years of 7% to 9%. Who would have ever thought that? That had never happened since the 1830s. We are finally having a positive population rise. All of that needs a food bank or food source that can feed and sustain a high population, not just on this island but indeed overseas. In all of these debates we need to look first at our capacity as a country to provide food for our own population and also to provide food for export. It would be a retrograde step to take productive land out of use or to cull herds to a point at which it would become very hard to turn that around and start to increase capacity.

We have had many solid environmental debates here about Moneypoint and peat-burning facilities in the midlands. It is quite easy and feasible to wind back and wind up those facilities. They are burning facilities. It is quite difficult to wind back a national livestock herd and expect that we can crank it up again in a decade or two, as needs require. Anyone who looks at the indices of good quality breeding for the national herd will see that some of the lineages and DNA are hundreds of years old. Some of the breeds that are considered continental have been in Ireland for a long time. It would take a long time to rebuild the genetic stock that we have in Ireland and we would want to be very slow to do anything to affect it.

My final point relates to EU trade deals with third countries, which are mainly to the benefit of large vehicle manufacturers in Europe, and technology and biopharma companies. They are the beneficiaries. South American and other countries get a deal where they can sell cheap food into the European economy. We would want to look at a recalibration of that. I would much rather see cheap, high quality food produced on this island than imported from overseas.

See this speech in context