Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad to present this annual transition statement from his Department. Others have touched on reports of just how far off track Ireland is in terms of meeting its climate change targets for 2020. I do not want to go into too much detail on that issue, but I do want to highlight it. It is a matter of very serious concern that we have fallen 28 places in the ranking of countries that are achieving their targets. It is also concerning that we are running very far behind where we hope to be by 2020 and, indeed, 2030.The fact that we are moving in the wrong direction has very serious consequences, and not only the real consequences we are seeing from climate change and extreme weather events such as damage to homes, businesses, farms and infrastructure. In 2012, for example, we had a fodder crisis that came out of a poor growing season and that then cost the economy €900 million. In terms of the impact of extreme weather events, which will become more frequent under climate change, these kinds of crises are very immediate. Quite apart from all of these real and immediate direct costs, however, we are also on track to incur significant fines on our economy. These fines have been estimated to range between €200 million and €600 million annually. The environmental coalition Stop Climate Chaos has estimated the overall economic impact of climate change down the line as €2 billion annually. I acknowledge that my colleague has spoken about why we need to really start looking at our position in terms of the facts and figures because we need to know from where these costs are coming.

We also need to address targets. Speaking at the Food Wise conference this week, the European Union's Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phil Hogan, talked about Ireland sleepwalking into fines over our climate change targets. Commissioner Hogan made it very clear that there will be more flexibility in the next round of Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, funding to recognise the differences between countries. I believe this to be positive and I hope it will address some of the conflict we have had previously whereby upland farmers in Ireland were perhaps wrongly penalised in terms of the availability of certain land for agriculture. There have been contradictions in the way in which the CAP has come down the line in the past and I hope these can now be addressed in the new scheme. These contradictions specifically concerned farmers being encouraged to maintain growth while at the same time being penalised if land was not agriculturally available in the uplands. This specific issue has caused tension before. We can address these issues but what is important is that the CAP will still set very high targets and will continue to look at outcomes. There will be no way around making choices in the area of agriculture.

I have spoken at length in this Chamber on the issue of our hedgerows, which Ireland uses regularly as one of our key carbon sinks. The Minister referred in his speech to the planting of new hedgerows. There is, however, a real concern that there are measures in the Heritage Bill 2016 that mean we will not be able to track where hedgerows are being lost because discretion is being returned to cutters without their activities being reported or charted. There is real concern that we are perhaps undermining the role played by hedgerows as a carbon sink vital for Ireland's fulfilling of its CAP targets. We need to make a strong case under the new CAP for how we are going to meet our climate targets.

There are also issues in the area of diversification of our agricultural input. We know that tillage is strong in Ireland and we know that our cattle and beef industries are strong. As mentioned by Senator Humphreys, however, there is an opportunity there for us at the top end of the market because Irish beef could and should be the best beef available. We could look to give greater recognition to highland beef and lamb for the particular space they might hold in the market. I point out to the Minister that when it comes to cattle and beef production we cannot look at quantity issues alone.

The all-Ireland pollinator plan is of central concern if we want to diversify further into high-value horticulture. This is something we are already starting to see in the west of Ireland, for example, and we are also starting to see a strong agrifood industry growing off the back of an increasing focus on horticulture. This is both a key area for us to grow and an appropriate area for diversification, and pollination and the all-Ireland pollinator plan will play a central role in that. One factor that has an impact on pollinators, however, as well as on the hedgerows, is climate change. Pollination and hedgerows, then, are both part of the solution and response to climate change but also two of the areas in jeopardy from it.

My next point concerns the Minister's adaptation strategy, which he has indicated to be a living document. Will the Minister be taking on board the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly in that living document? A total of 97% of the members of that assembly recommended that the State end subsidies for peat extraction and move instead towards peat bog restoration; 89% recommended a tax on greenhouse gases from agriculture; and 99% recommended that the State review and revise supports for land use diversification, with particular attention to the planting of forests and supports for organic farming. As the messages and votes to come from the Citizens' Assembly are certainly strong, I ask the Minister how these will feature in the adaptation strategy.

My final question is this: how can we better support, through Irish Aid, adaption funding for farmers in developing countries so as to ensure that those who have done the least to cause climate change are not-----