Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. It is always great to have an opportunity to speak about agriculture and climate change in this Chamber. As the Minister well knows, I am passionate about our indigenous industry. Agriculture is who I am, how I was reared, how I rear my children and part of my daily life. The Minister highlighted his commitment to his brief and to his community. He mentioned how he has travelled around every single county in the Republic asking farmers their opinions during his consultation phase. That has to be rewarded. The Minister is the first Minister to have done that so I applaud and congratulate him for doing that. The day we had him in Ardee to meet our Louth farmers was a great one and I look forward to welcoming him again because I know he has an awful lot of friends in County Louth.

We all know that agriculture and our rural landscape are what Ireland is known for. All across the world our beautiful land and top quality produce is well-known. We are the emerald island and the green island and we know we have a lot of work to do to make this country green and sustainable by name and by nature. We have huge targets of 51% reductions in our overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and that will set us on the path for the zero emissions by 2050 target. I know we can do this by working together across all Departments and industries. I have been advocating for strong environmental policies for as long as I can remember since I created a green team in my primary school so I was pushing for this 20 years ago. This is what we all believe and as a farmer’s daughter, I was brought up to know that we have to look after our countryside, animals, produce and what we create on this island. We have to step up in every single industry to make sure we bring everyone with us.

We know significant changes are needed and significant decisions are being made in every aspect. However, it also sometimes feels that the agricultural community is under fire, although not by the Minister or the Department. It feels like it is being blamed by society for every single carbon emission in our country. We have to look at our transport industry, the lack of sustainable packaging, the waste in our public sector and our buildings and hospitals with windows being left open with the heat on. We need joined-up thinking, we cannot blame farmers for everything and I know the Minister does not do that.

We all know farmers want to change. They want to protect what they have on their land but if Members will pardon the pun, the environment is so tense. Farmers are working under pressure and in volatile circumstances to an incredibly tight margin. When farmers do not receive a cost price for what they produce, never mind a profit, it is understandable how worried farmers are. I know there is space for afforestation but we have to change our attitude towards this and reduce the bureaucracy of planting and harvesting and make it accessible. We have to build the rewards of tree planting and put the protection of our hedgerows into the rewards scheme. We must match the sequestration by trees and hedgerows to the production of food. We should measure it, highlight it and scream it from the rooftops because we know our farmers are sustainable and that an awful lot of what they produce is already carbon neutral. There are other greenhouse gases but I imagine they are on top of being carbon neutral as it stands.

As someone who grew up on a small beef suckler farm I know that struggle and I know the disappointment at a table when the cheque comes and one is not getting the cost price for one's animals. It is a fairly depressing day when that cheque arrives on the table and it does not cover the costs. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to the national food ombudsman to make sure we have fair trading practices and to implement the directive that was highlighted in the Minister’s spring legislation.

I also want to highlight the importance of protecting the tiny animals we have in this country, that is, the bees. We must support our colleague, Senator Martin, with his Bill, which I seconded in this House. The Minister knows I am a huge advocate for looking after our bees and our native biodiversity and trees. We have an opportunity to preserve the native bee in this country and we can do that by banning the importation of bees. We can do so on an environmental basis and we should forget about the EU law on the free movement of goods. We have a good rationale for the protection of our bees and I hope we can do that and move forward in an ambitious way because I am ambitious for agriculture and climate change in this country.