Independent TD Carol Nolan has condemned the government’s agreement to introduce a 25% emissions reduction target for agriculture, and said the parties have “signed their death warrant with rural Ireland”.
Deputy Nolan was speaking after a Cabinet memo calling for the implementation of a 25% cut in emissions by 2030 was signed off on yesterday (July 28). Responding to the announcement she said:
“Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens have sown the seeds of a massive rural revolt following this repugnant agreement.”
Nolan voiced her extreme discontent with the agreement, which she labelled “toxic and inflammatory”. She also questioned how the government “has been captured hook, line and sinker by a fundamentalist Green ideology that has no interest in farming”.
According to the deputy, the decision means that worrying times lie ahead for those in the farming community and rural Ireland, as their interests have been sidelined in favour of “a brutal ideological agenda”.
“It will introduce massive destabilisation in a sector that has already moved heaven and earth to find ways of effectively engaging with responsible methods of carbon mitigation,” she said.
Rural Independents
Her colleagues in the Rural Independents Group have echoed these statements with leader Deputy Mattie McGrath stating that Irish farmers have unfairly become “the scapegoats of climate change”.
“The full-frontal attack on the rural way of life by this government, dressed up in glossy climate change lingo and without any consultation, is callous and cruel,” said the deputy.
He said that introducing a legal requirement to cut emissions by 25% will force the closure of a number of farms and will cause food prices to rise sharply at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis.
“Irish farmers, will be, despite the spin, hit extremely hard by this decision, as they have much less scope to lower emissions without drastically compromising food production and reducing the national herd.”
He added that it is clear the government “is hellbent on clinging to power rather than helping rural communities”.
Other countries
Deputy McGrath said that the decision will ultimately lead to a reduction in the national herd while at the same time, other countries such as Brazil are planning to increase their cow numbers.
As well as this, several countries have paused or altered their emissions reduction plans, yet the Irish government refuses to cut farmers some slack, said McGrath.
“Our government continues to proceed with severe mandatory cuts, even though Ireland produces only 0.09% of the total global emissions.”
“These deep farm emission reductions, within the currently evolving inflation-induced environment, are reckless and dangerous.
The deputies concluded by stating that the government is clearly neither an ally or an advocate for rural Ireland and said:
“They have a rude awakening coming to them if they think we and the farming communities are going to let them destroy us without one hell of a fight.”