Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here today. As Senator Boyhan said, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue contacted me to say that he could not be here because he is launching an important climate action strategy. It is important that a member of the Green Party is taking this Commencement matter. I ask that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine update the House on the actions of the Department to audit and calculate the current carbon sequestration of agricultural land and farm holdings.

The Minister of State knows this issue is important. I have been talking about it for years and I am very frustrated by the lack of clarity. We have had crazy debates, some of which involved bullying, over the summer with regard to carbon budgets for agriculture. The narrative by some media and elected representatives around the conversation shows a level of misunderstanding by the majority of Irish agriculture and, as a result, often threatens and downgrades Irish agriculture. Such a narrative can be very difficult for farming families.

The agri sector people speak about is not an anonymous entity. Rather, it comprises the farm I grew up on which my family farms to this day and my neighbours. Many people struggle to make ends meet. While trying to keep farms going they are hearing that we need to cut emissions. They agree with that, but they feel taken advantage of because farm holdings big and small are the carbon sink of the nation and there is no acknowledgement by the State of this. Trees, grass, soil and even sheep's wool sequester carbon. Some 400,000 km of hedgerows across this country are carbon sinks and biodiversity havens.The lowly, common hawthorn can support more than 200 insect species. That alone is something that should be acknowledged.

We are entering an era that could be an exciting time for farmers. We could be empowering our farmers and we could be giving them control in working towards net-zero agriculture. We could also be allowing them to send energy from solar panels back onto the grid. There are acres of roof space across the country, but for some bureaucratic lack of will they are denied the ability to do this. I passionately believe the science will back me up when I say that many of our farmers are actually farming at net zero.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is probably well aware, a private enterprise, an agri-tech company named Devenish, has launched the ground-breaking sustainable farming initiative which helps to decarbonise the global agricultural sector by supporting farmers to continue to produce nutritious meat and milk while dramatically improving their carbon balance. Knowing one’s carbon balance sheet will help one identify the actions that will help the wider agricultural sector to reach net-zero carbon emissions and beyond, boosting environmental credentials for producers and processors at every point along the food the chain. Accurately measuring on-farm carbon emissions and carbon sequestration will create a new value for farmers across the island of Ireland and will substantially accelerate the achievement of climate goals while improving biodiversity, water quality and overall farm resilience.

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland is doing this on a voluntary basis on dairy farms. There are already many farms across the country that are undertaking this work through various initiatives, but they are doing mitigation in the dark. Knowledge is power, and it is vital that we empower this industry to understand the baselines and to drive improvements in its efforts to mitigate climate change.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important question. I highlight that it is the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to prepare the reports on emissions and removals associated with land use activities on an annual basis to the EU and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC. However, there are many projects, as the Senator said, and work that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is undertaking that will benefit the improved reporting of the land use, land use change and forestry, LULUCF, inventory.

In Ireland, due to a temperate climate and to the prevalence of sustainable farming and forestry practices, we are fortunate to have a wide range of high-quality soils with stable reserves of soil carbon. The many beneficial roles of soil carbon are well known. Soil carbon increases resistance to soil erosion, improves water retention and fertility while also acting as a reservoir for biodiversity. These are all essential ecosystem services that we rely on for our overall health and wellbeing. We are looking at the co-benefits of carbon, soil and water quality. Therefore, increasing the rate of atmospheric carbon sequestration on our mineral soils is a priority of the Minister and our Department in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, for which accurate measurement will be important.

Towards this goal, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has provided funding for the formation of a nationwide network of best practice demonstration and research farms under the Teagasc SignPost programme. This network will allow farmers to view novel approaches to carbon sequestration activities such as multi-species swards, liming, clover incorporation and improved fertiliser management. It will involve accurate measurement and baseline setting to allow continuous monitoring and verification.

However, carbon sequestration is only one small part of the overall approach. The reduction of soil-based emissions is important to deliver the reductions in the overall carbon balance and the Department has delivered several projects to address knowledge deficits in this area. The RePEAT project will help to accurately identify the extent of organic soils under agricultural management while investment in European innovation projects in the midlands will seek to develop a results-based agri-environmental model to reward farmers for implementing sustainable management practices on peat soils.

Recent investment in carbon flux monitoring infrastructure, located on a range of soil types and agricultural management systems throughout Ireland, will provide accurate measurements and scientific evidence for both farmers and policymakers on the climate beneficial results of improved on-farm management decisions. This proposal will comprise approximately 30 greenhouse gas flux towers across a range of soil types. The resulting national agricultural soil carbon observatory will place Ireland at the forefront of EU carbon sequestration research.

Teagasc will shortly complete a research project called “farm carbon”, which provides a deeper understanding of hedgerows as carbon stocks - I know the Senator referenced this - in agricultural landscapes and will allow researchers to identify approaches to maintain and enhance this contribution. In addition, the soil sampling programme aims to establish a comprehensive national baseline on the soil organic matter, nutrient and soil pathogen status of our soils across all farming systems and geographic areas.

As the Senator will appreciate, the knowledge gained from research and technological infrastructure establishment activities pursued through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will not only demonstrate the continued viability of our agrifood sector but it will also allow for the refinement of our reporting to the national inventory further emphasising the sustainability of the agricultural sector.

Our Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, work in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine around some of these projects, particularly on carbon-rich soils and peatlands.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Minister of State that much work has been done. I will go back to my point that farmers still have no baseline and they do not know what they are doing on the farms. I will stress that knowledge is power. If the McGreehan farm knew what tit was putting out, then it could reduce and understand what it needed to do best. It could buy into that and could work with the Department on the soil and hedgerows. It could add to it while understanding what it is that it needs to do because at the moment farmers are in the dark on that.

The Minister of State also said that the calculations are the responsibility of the EPA but the EPA is a State body. I would urge the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, as well as the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which has a responsibility in this area too, and the EPA to work together to work to make sure farmers know what they are emitting, what they are sequestering and what they have to do to reduce that balance.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I take on board all the points the Senator is making. Certainly, the research is ongoing and establishing baselines is critically important. As I said in my opening remarks, that work is very much being addressed. There are other issues I think are of value, such as looking at the value of semi-natural grasslands which, in many cases, I do not think have been given enough consideration. We have lost quite an amount of our semi-natural grasslands over the past 20 to 30 years. We are losing hedgerows at an alarming rate and, in many cases, they are poorly maintained. They are being overly manicured. They have a significant role to play, and I would like to see benefits accrue from that, from the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and from other measures.

A nature restoration law is to come from the European Commission. We are developing an Irish Government position on that, which will have co-benefits for water, carbon and biodiversity. In the few seconds I have remaining I will say that the last thing that we want to do is to scapegoat farmers for this. It is critically important that we work in partnership with the farming sector. We think there is a valuable partnership to be had and that there is a great opportunity for farming to be centrally involved in this massive transformation that needs to take place.