Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion and commend the Rural Independent Group on bringing it forward. We are happy to support the motion. There is a great deal in it and it is important we have this debate and this conversation.

As I have said many times, farmers are ready, willing and able to act in regard to climate action. It is farmers who have protected our land for generations. The vast majority of farmers have been farming with the environment in mind for generations and, of course, that was to their benefit, as well as to the benefit of the environment in which they farm. The issue here is that they have never been compensated for that work, and that is very much where the focus needs to be now. Everyone in this House will acknowledge the action all of us have to take but, in particular, the action farmers have to take in regard to climate action is going to be a massive challenge. I believe it is a challenge farmers are well up for and it is a challenge that can be achieved, but the way in which it is achieved is the question.

We also have to be mindful in regard to climate action targets and what we ask farmers to do, given everything they do is going to have an impact on our rural communities. Agriculture and farmers are the backbone of rural communities. To protect and support one, we also have to do the same for the other because we do not get one without the other.

The target of 25% was set last July so we are approaching a year now and we still do not have that roadmap and plan as to how we are going to get to 25%. Teagasc has done some very good work in this area and has shown us how to get to about 18%. I believe agriculture will potentially be the only sector that will reach or come very close to reaching its target. I am not sure about other sectors but Teagasc has done a lot of work in this regard. The roadmap setting that out is crucial. We need to give farmers certainty and we need to give them a plan. They need to be able to see what they are going to be required to do and what they are going to get as regards remuneration for that.

We need to do that for the future of farming, especially for young farmers who may be considering agriculture and-or have grown up on a farm and are looking at farming in the future. For them, it is a question. We are in a situation with agriculture in Ireland where many farmers, such as my father, who have farmed all of their lives are coming to the point where, probably for the first time in many generations, it is not the case that it is guaranteed the son or daughter will take on the farm. In many cases, farmers are wondering if they should be encouraging their children. It is hard but, in many cases, farmers are not getting a fair income for their produce. That is a challenge, along with climate action.

I really resent the immediate and automatic jump to cutting the national herd. It is particularly there in the media when we talk about reducing and meeting our targets, as if cutting and reducing the national herd was the only option and there was nothing else to be done. Of course, that is not the case. We have to use our imaginations and be innovative in how we are going to reach our targets. They can be achieved without the cut in the national herd. I welcome what the Minister said because putting it on the Dáil record again is important in this debate.

We are at a loss in regard to research. Teagasc is doing a lot of work in this area and it is badly needed. However, in many cases when it comes to agriculture in Ireland, we are relying on and hearing about international research. Ireland is unique in how it produces high-quality produce and we need to protect that but, unfortunately, we are behind in regard to research. Every decision made in regard to Ireland and meeting our targets has to be based on Irish agriculture and how we produce food in this country. We need to look at that plan.

Teagasc has done a lot of work on showing us how we can meet our reductions without impacting the competitiveness of the agrifood sector, which is what we need to achieve. It has talked about incorporating clover, reducing the age of first calving and the use of 100% low emissions slurry spreading, LESS, for which there is direct demand. Ahead of the budget, the Minister needs to look at a greater grant to meet this demand. There is a target of 90% for low emissions slurry spreading by 2027. That is a target that has been set and we need to make sure the funding is in place to ensure farmers and contractors can access that grant to ensure LESS is available and accessible to farmers and we meet the target.

I have been contacted by a number of dairy farmers, especially in the south of the country, who have said they are seeking a retirement scheme. This will only be for some farmers. That is the way of life and it will be across farming, where farmers do not have a son or daughter and maybe have nobody at all in the household to take over the farm. For that small cohort of farmers who are seeking this, the support should be there because they deserve it.

I want to raise with the Minister what he calls Ireland's flagship agri-environmental scheme, ACRES. There are a number of issues that have been raised with me in regard to co-operation zones. Again, this is a scheme which has had major buy-in, which is welcome, but we need to ensure we get it right. As far as I can see, a number of double standards have been created with regard to co-operation zones. We know there are different scoring timeframes in regard to how soon the scorecards have to be put in place. We know co-operation teams for commonage have been given extra time. They have been given an extra month but will, in fact, have two years to submit their scorecards, while farmers in the same zones who have their own advisers, as many do and have had for many years, will be required to meet the deadline of August and are given no additional time. Will the Minister look at this? He has clearly given the additional time for commonage to acknowledge the time pressure that exists, which is welcome, but I ask that there would be a level playing field for all advisers in these co-operation zones. That is only fair and I ask the Minister to look at that.

In regard to finances in that scheme, I see double standards within the co-operation zones whereby those in commonage areas will receive a payment regardless of whether their land has been scored on time, whereas those on lowlands will get no payment at all if their land is not scored. That is not fair.

Again, when these issues are raised, the Department needs to be far more flexible, and where an issue is identified in the co-operation zones, it should be dealt with. The Department should show some bit of flexibility to farmers. We all want this scheme to work. We want to have a good agri-environmental scheme. I ask the Minister to look at those two issues.

In regard to carbon audits on farms, we had this in our pre-budget submission last year. It is important we look at this on a farm-by-farm basis. This work is very important. It has been raised with me by a number of farm organisations that if a farmer goes ahead and installs, for example, solar panels on sheds, the credits will not remain with that farmer.

We need clarity on that because if we are asking farmers to take these measures, it is important they are remunerated and the measures they take are acknowledged in the first place.

There is much more we need to do. We need to grow the organic sector and grow the tillage sector in particular. Much is said about the Mercosur deal and importing tonnes of beef into Ireland. Of course, that should not go ahead, but similarly we are importing 6.5 million tonnes of feedstuffs into Ireland every single year. We should be standing on our own two feet far more on this. We need to look at the tillage sector as an area that can grow, particularly when we see feedstuffs coming here from very different parts of the world.

The Minister mentioned the increase in the forestry programme. That is welcome but it would be more welcome if we had a forestry programme. That is something we are still waiting on and it is of great concern to the forestry sector. We should get far more updates on where that programme is at and when we can expect to see it. Foresters and farmers need to hear from the Minister when we will see the forestry programme in place. That is really important and I encourage the Minister to provide those updates into the future. The sector is in big trouble and has no idea when the forestry programme will be in place, and people with land who are looking to plant cannot get a licence. It is a major issue. The funding is there, which is great, and it is hoped the programme will have a lot in it and be welcomed, but we need to see it and for it to be done considerably more quickly than it has been done.

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