The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, is being called upon to answer questions in relation to the measures farmers are being asked to take to tackle climate change.
Speaking on the live stream at the Agriland pavilion at the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co. Laois this week, independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said that farmers are the original custodians of the land but are being vilified in the climate debate.
He said that some politicians have been “speaking out of both sides of their mouths”, and that “you’re either standing with farmers, or you’re standing against farmers; but you can’t have it both ways”.
He continued: “The farmers of Ireland are the real environmentalists. They are the real green people, they are the real people who are concerned about the environment because they own it, it’s their’s and they want to pass it on to future generations better than the way they got it.
“But in the quest for some of the things that the government [is] trying to achieve, they are doing stupid things that are not necessary.
“A farm that is well-ran, is one of the most carbon neutral things that we can have.”
Healy-Rae said that many farmers in Kerry have expressed their concerns about inflation and the cost of inputs and that they feel they want a “minister for agriculture who stands with them and not against them”.
“Would he [Minister Charlie McConalogue] please not change the VAT rate and make it the same price as white diesel,” Healy-Rae said on the Agriland live stream.
“Would you please ask the minister to ensure that the suggestion of banning ploughing in Ireland, that he’ll throw that out the window for the nonsensical rubbish that it is?
“Would you please ask the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that the people who want to cut turf will not be banned from doing so?”
The Kerry representative also wants the agriculture minister to explain why small shops and fuel suppliers who sell bags of coal and timber are “going to be looking over their shoulder”.
Deputy Healy-Rae has claimed that the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties have supported Green Party policies which are detrimental to rural life and farming families, adding: “I’m as worried about the environment as any farmer is”.