Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a broad issue and throw out a few ideas. As the weather is improving, we are moving into the depths of the sheep-shearing season. Unfortunately, the value of and demand for sheep wool, which is a natural, renewable commodity, has dropped off the face of the Earth in recent years. In the past three years alone, wool prices have fallen to one third of what they were. It now costs a farmer money to shear a sheep when there was a time when there was profit left behind from the wool. In an age when all sectors of farming, and sheep farming in particular, need a little boost, as a population and as a race of people we are moving towards synthetic and petrochemically produced fibres when, in the context of climate change and renewable energies, wool is a renewable, natural fibre. Perhaps the Leader will say that this matter relates to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine but it could also relate to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment or the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation.

The time for talking is over with regard to renewables, a greener society and climate change. I propose that this House take the initiative and set up a select committee to start looking at these things properly and realistically. As I say, the one example I am using, of the many that are out there, is that of sheep wool. It is a renewable, natural fibre that has to be shorn each year, after which another fleece is produced the following year. It can be used in insulation, clothing and carpets but instead we are destroying our climate and environment by continually moving towards the petrochemically produced synthetic fibres. It is not just an issue of sheep wool. There are many more items and products out there. Somebody will have to take the lead on this. It cannot be kicked from one Department to another like a football. In this instance alone there is the double advantage in that it would provide much needed income to the sheep farming sector and, in turn, help to solve our environmental issues.