Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is very welcome to the Seanad this morning. Unfortunately, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, cannot be with us because he is at a press conference. Given Waterford's very fertile agricultural land, I know the Minister of State will have an interest in this matter.

I seek a statement from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the audit and calculation of the current carbon sequestration of agricultural land and farm holdings, which is basically a carbon balance sheet for farm enterprises.

This is a very important issue, one I have been talking about for many years. I am very frustrated by the lack of clarity on the topic. We have had crazy debates, including some bullying in my opinion, over carbon budgets for agriculture. The narrative from some in the media and among elected representatives in this debate shows a significant level of misunderstanding by the majority about Irish agriculture. As a result, it often threatens and downgrades agriculture. That can be very difficult.

The agricultural sector people speak about is not some sort of anonymous entity. It is the farm I grew up on. It is the farm my neighbours toil on and where they struggle to make ends meet every single day of the week. While we are trying to keep all that going, we must cut emissions, which we agree with, but why are farmers taken advantage of?

We have big and small farm holdings. They are the carbon sink of this nation and to date there is no acknowledgement of that by the State. Trees, grass, soil and even sheep's wool sequesters carbon. The 400,000 km of hedgerows right across the country is a carbon sink and a biodiversity haven. Even the lowly common hawthorn has about 200 different insects living on it. We are entering into an era that could be a very exciting time for farmers. We could be empowering farmers and giving them control to work towards the net-zero agriculture we all want and they want. I passionately believe that science will back me up on this and that the majority of farmers, in particular the small ones, are farming in a net-zero way in terms of carbon, and that we can do this.

Devenish, a private agri-technology company, has done this in County Meath. It is using sustainable farming initiatives that help decarbonise global agriculture by supporting farmers to continue to produce nutritious meat and milk while dramatically improving their carbon balance. As the Minister of State is aware, knowing the carbon balance sheet leads to the identification of actions that will help the wider agricultural sector to reach net-zero carbon emissions and beyond. That will boost environmental credentials for producers and processors at every point along the food chain.

I was very glad to hear the announcement this morning by the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, about an extra €2 million in funding for his research budget, bringing it to €22.45 million. To quote the press release, "This will be used to drive greater innovation in our agriculture, food, forestry and bioeconomy sectors as we position Irish agriculture as a leader in sustainable food production. In addition, Teagasc will receive an allocation of €168 million to support their activities."

I know the Department is behind me on this, but I want to ensure that money will be put into farms to make sure every farm is audited. We could start a pilot project in County Louth because we have every type of agriculture there - tillage, grain, sheep, cattle, dairy and we even have aquaculture - to ensure that every single farm has a carbon balance sheet. I am very excited about this. I hope the new research budget will assist in that regard.