Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Very early this morning, in a packed Aviva Stadium, the Taoiseach launched a seminar on agriculture and climate change and the challenges around it. I thank the Ministers who were present and acknowledge the level of organisation and the impressive line-out of speakers. The seminar will be on all day. I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and his two Ministers of State. Listening to the presentations this morning and the high-level engagement with people, it was clear that we have a lot to learn. We have an agricultural panel in the Seanad but we do not discuss agriculture enough. This is about agriculture and climate change. I ask that we provide some time to discuss the issue. The previous Cathaoirleach had a trial run of having panel discussions in the House. It is an idea we might look at again because it is a good one. I ask that we have a discussion on agriculture and climate and the connectivity between them?

There are major challenges for agriculture, the environment and our rural communities. Let us not pretend that great difficulties do not exist. There are great difficulties that must be overcome. We have to see how we can incentivise landowners, farmers, growers and producers to embrace new technologies that will assist them. These issues are being discussed at the conference today. It is really important that we set aside some time in the new year to look at that. Perhaps we could look at having panels. We have been elected to various panels in this House and we could discuss topics pertinent to them in the future. I ask for specific designated time to be provided for the House to deal with issues around climate change and their interactivity with agriculture and food production.