Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald has told her party’s Ard Fheis in Athlone this evening (Saturday, September 28) that “we need an all of society response to climate change”.
In her key note address at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis Deputy McDonald said: “People want to respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis.
“So, let’s empower them, communities, urban and rural, and compensate our farmers for the big part they will play”.
Deputy McDonald also said that Sinn Féin is ambitious for renewable energy and energy independence.
“We will invest in infrastructure, and planning, back renewable projects – wind energy, solar, green hydrogen,” she added.
The Sinn Féin leader also warned at her party’s Ard Fheis that “the General Election is coming”.
Agriculture
But she left it chiefly to the party’s spokesperson on agriculture and rural development, Sligo-Leitrim TD, Martin Kenny, to speak on key farming issues at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis.
Addressing the Ard Fheis on the first day yesterday (September, 27) Deputy Kenny said “productive agriculture is a major part of life in rural Ireland”.
However he warned that there are now a great deal of people who live in rural communities “who are not engaged with agriculture” and that there has been “a drift more and more toward urbanisation”.
Deputy Kenny said: “The state has a role to play in planning long-term, funded, schemes that work to protect the viability of farming and compensating where necessary for the public goods – both social and environmental – that farming provides.
“Many in the sector have employment off the land just to keep their heads above water.
“This is why it is crucial that we develop employment opportunities in our rural towns and villages.”
He again highlighted his party’s ambition to establish a commission “on the future of the family farm in order to look at each sector and plan a long-term, viable future for the family farm”.
Deputy Kenny said: “This commission will include people who are experts and bring ideas on how we can turn around the fortunes of agriculture.
“Farmers themselves need to be part of that conversation – they are the real experts”.
The Sligo-Leitrim TD also warned that the price which farmers receive for their produce “is key to the viability of rural communities”.
“The state has a role to play as a regulator to guarantee a fair price for quality produce,” he said.