Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I stand up to speak on agricultural issues, it causes great mirth among my colleagues in the parliamentary party but it is an important issue for all of us. The sooner we realise that agriculture affects everybody in this country, not just those in rural communities, but those of us in all constituencies, the better. I come from a constituency where we have farms, even though people do not seem to know about it. Ballyman and the Scalp in the south west of the Dún Laoghaire constituency have a number of farms that are important parts of our agriculture infrastructure. Across Dublin there are quite a number of farms. As I understand it from the CSO, in 2023 some 31,818 ha of land were being farmed in Dublin, which astonished me. Farming and agriculture affect all of us and exist in every part of the country.

The CAP, by extension, something we have been part of for generations now, is a hugely important part of the infrastructure that supports agriculture. It allows agriculture to exist beyond a subsistence level and to be a functional part of our economy. It supports functioning farms that are profit-making and delivering food onto the tables of Ireland and the rest of the world, and delivering money, jobs and resources into communities. That is also hugely important. Improving agricultural productivity and supporting farmers to ensure a stable, affordable food supply is beneficial to us from the point of view of food supply but also in supporting rural and farming communities around the country. The Common Agricultural Policy is a massively important part of a Europe-wide effort to safeguard EU farmers and the manner in which we farm in the European Union.

Comparing the way we farm here to the intensive farming we might associate more with the United States, it is better for the environment, the communities and the animals involved. All of these are supported by the structure of funding that is available to farmers to support them and ensure they are viable. Even within the European Union there are big differences. For example, I will compare the manner of farming in Ireland to that in France. It is much more intensive in France. The quality of food we produce in this country, the grass-fed beef, with animals out in the open, is done with very little of the intensive farming we might find particularly in very large farming operations on the Continent. With no disrespect to our colleagues in the European Union, the result is a much higher quality agricultural product than we might get in any other country in the world. That is something we can be immensely proud of but it is also expensive to render a quality product at that level. It would not possible to do it without the supports we put in place for farmers and agriculture.

It ensures the survival of not just those farms but of the rural economy and all the communities attached to those rural economies. However, perhaps the most important point in the current climate - I use the word "climate" somewhat ironically - is what farmers do to prevent climate change and support the protection of the environment through all the schemes provided by the Department of agriculture and, by extension, the European Union. Those schemes are hugely important for supporting biodiversity on farms and reducing the intensity of farming on farms. We then look at the work that is done by research institutions like Teagasc and the research on different types of grass or swards that can be fed to animals that reduce the carbon emissions. Look at how long the lifespan of an animal that is going to be slaughtered for meat can be. Slaughtering that animal at an earlier age and when it is ready to be slaughtered, means that it is producing less carbon in its lifetime. These are incredibly important academic decisions again being made through the support of the same funds that allow us to reduce the environmental impact that agriculture has in general.

We also have to be cognisant of the fact that when we talk about the environmental impact of agriculture, in Ireland it is less per kilogram of beef or whatever metric you want to use to assess it, particularly compared to countries outside the European Union which do not have the same regulations, the same restrictions and the same measures in place to mitigate the impact of farming on the environment. That is not just in terms of carbon emissions but in terms of the impact it has on a landscape, on biodiversity etc. Irish farmers deserve an awful lot of credit for the amount of work they do to safeguard the environment they farm and the environment around their animals, to ensure they have hedgerows in place, to ensure they rotate fields, etc. They deserve credit for that and they do not always get it because we hear all the time how agriculture is carbon intensive and is a huge source of emissions. Of course, that is true but you cannot just wipe that off the map because you then have a different problem to solve in terms of food supply.

For example, if we decide we are going to reduce our dependence on the national herd in Ireland, you are not going to say to Irish consumers you are going to consume less meat. They are still going to eat meat, but it is just going to come from other jurisdictions where there is much more carbon intensive production and there are much greater emissions from the production of beef - for example, in Brazil or Argentina - than there are in Ireland. There is also the carbon cost of transporting that beef from South America to Europe. These are wider and perhaps nuanced pictures that are very often ignored in the climate conversation but are also ignored in the climate targets for Ireland. The targets are solely nationally based and do not take into account that if you reduce emissions from agriculture in Ireland, the reality is you are going to consume more agriculture products from other countries where there is a more carbon intensive farming model. That has to be a bad thing.

That is a national point but in terms of Dublin, it is important to remember that are 680 farms in Dublin. That is 0.5% of the national number of farms but it is a lot of communities, households and families supported by agriculture. The average size of the farms is 51 ha, so they are not enormous farms, certainly by European standards but even by Irish standards. I have asked that we put in place supports, particularly for farmers in the Dublin area. They often fall between the cracks. I am a member of the Irish Farmers' Association but meetings do not happen in my area. We have to go to north Wicklow, and that is okay. However, the point is that just because there is a small number of farmers in an area does not mean they are less important or they do not deserve the supports. In fact, I have submitted a question next week to the Minister for agriculture asking for specific targeted supports for those farmers, particularly dry stock farmers, in my area in places like the Scalp and Ballyman. These are people who do not have expansive, good land available to them and yet they still produce a fine, very high quality product. They deserve to be recognised in that regard but also supported through funding. I also acknowledge the funding that is there for the Dublin Rural LEADER programme and the work it does in helping Dublin farmers through that programme, as well as the other measures I mentioned already.

I raised this issue but we also have a situation with the gender profile of farmers in Ireland. It is a very male dominated industry, in Dublin anyway. Only 12.8% of farms in this county are owned by women, which is very much less than could be the case. Obviously, traditionally the oldest son took over the family farm. That does not have to be the case anymore and we know there are lots of farmers throughout this country who are women and who are farming excellently. They should also be supported and encouraged wherever that is possible.

I will not recite the statistics in relation to the agrifood sector as they are enormous. However, the benefit of agriculture is not just an economic one; it is a cultural one and a community one. The people in this country and in this county who farm do so in difficult circumstances. It is a lonely and a dangerous job. We know the number of farm accidents that have caused significant injuries and deaths in this country. As a society, economy and as fellow Irish people, we owe a debt of gratitude to people around this country, whether they are in Dublin or elsewhere, who go out every day and look after their animals and their farm and do their job while also looking after the environment.

At the end of the day, they create a high quality product that can be sold abroad but which also feeds our children and is served on our tables and in our restaurants here and across the European Continent. That happens because of the dedication of those people but it also happens because of the funding in place at European and national levels to support them and to ensure they can do what they do, which they do well, competently, effectively and efficiently. They deserve credit but we also have to recognise, at a European level, that funding makes it possible and it makes it possible in a way that minimises the environmental impact, maximises the economic benefit and results in a product that is high quality and, obviously, something that benefits us all.

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