Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

From our point of view, farmers are the custodians of the land. This climate transition will not happen without the participation of farmers, because they are there on the ground at, literally, the grassroots. Therefore, we must support them. If there is criticism of farming and farmers, it is certainly not coming from me. I state that because we in the Green Party recognise the part that farmers play. If assurances can be provided to farmers through these amendments regarding taking into account the work they are doing, then we must do that.

It is also important to recognise that the part to be played by sequestration and carbon sinks when it comes to farming is quite small. Those aspects will be taken into account anyway, because we are talking about net emissions. We must ensure that we put on the record the importance of following the science in this regard. I sit on the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action and we had representatives from the EPA before us this week. We discussed sequestration and carbon sinks. Quite apart from the small part they may play in emissions, investing in carbon sinks and sequestration in respect of farming will do so much for biodiversity. That is apart from this Bill, and it must be supported in any case.

Representatives from Macra na Feirme also appeared before the committee last week. It is interesting that farmers recognise that consumers want greener products and that means farmers know that they must invest in these greener products. It is our responsibility as a State to support them in doing that. When we asked those representatives from Macra na Feirme last week how such support could be provided, they called for support from ecologists. It shows the commitment farming communities have to changing to a greener product, and that is where the money is coming from regarding European funding and that is what we want to support.