Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said that the party will “stand up for the Irish family farm”.
The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, made the pledge during his address to Green Party Annual Convention in Athlone this evening (Saturday, November 26).
Ryan said that Green Party ministers have delivered a series of measures that will improve quality of life and reduce costs while benefiting the climate, communities and culture.
Family Farm
The Green Party leader said that Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Senator Pippa Hackett, has “turned things around” for the forestry sector since she came to office two years ago.
“Fixing a broken licensing system and launching a new programme for forestry which will transform the Irish countryside for the better.
“She has taken on the false narrative that farming and the environmental sector cannot work together,” Ryan said.
“We Greens stand up for the Irish family farm. We want a whole new generation of farmers and foresters who will be paid well for managing our land, delivering high quality food and protecting nature.
“They will be our heroes, who help save the world one field, one parish and one county at a time,” he added.
Ryan said that Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan has “brought the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) back from the brink of extinction”.
He added that Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), Ossian Smyth, “has kickstarted a whole new circular economy” through the implementation of the waste action plan.
Energy
The Green Party leader said that solar power targets would be accelerated by five years so that 5,000MW of capacity would be installed before the current government finishes its term.
“What that means is that by 2025 there will be sunny afternoons when we are generating enough solar electricity to power the entire country.
“When the Green Party joined government in 2020, the country was powered by gas on those warm, summer days. By the time we finish in office, we will be powered by the sun.”
Ryan said that Ireland “will be part of the solar revolution that is taking place in our world”.
The minister for the environment said that the “development of offshore wind will require careful environmental planning”.
He added that the government’s €9 billion retrofitting programme will cover 27,000 houses this year and a further 37,000 in 2023.
“It is the best way of tackling energy poverty, giving everyone a warm cosy home.”
Ryan election ambitions
The Green Party leader also took the opportunity to outline their political ambitions in the next local and European elections.
“I am setting set a goal tonight that one in ten Irish people will vote for this green future in those next elections. Such a result would bring in 100 green councillors, a new generation ready to serve both our people and the planet.
“This is not a time for staying on the bench or sitting on the fence. We are in the fight of our lives and we are all in it together,” Ryan said.