FIANNA FÁIL members of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture have joined with Opposition parties to put “on hold” the Climate Change Response Bill 2010.
The Bill is a key piece of legislation which the Green Party wants to have enacted before it leaves power, but last night its passage looked unsure.
Intense political pressure from the agriculture sector, particularly on Fianna Fáil backbenchers, claiming the Bill’s emission reduction targets will damage the industry, seemed to pay dividends.
Johnny Brady, Fianna Fáil chairman of the committee, announced the cross-party decision at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security.
“There is consensus among [agriculture] committee members that the Bill as it presently stands will not serve the best interests of the agriculture industry and could significantly hold back Ireland’s economic recovery,” he said.
“The stipulations in the Bill will hinder the targeted €4 billion increase in exports in the next four years and put the expected job increases in the sector at risk,” he told the climate change committee.
He said the agriculture committee, following analysis of the legislation, felt the Bill should be revisited to incorporate the conclusions of the two cross-party reports compiled by the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change.
Ciarán Cuffe, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with responsibility for climate change, rejected claims the Bill demanded higher levels of emission reductions than required by the EU.
In a statement, he said the targets set out in the Bill were consistent with EU targets and did not place additional requirements on sectors such as agriculture above what is legally required by 2020.
“In addition, there is built-in flexibility to the targets that provide for them to be reviewed and changed subject to independent economic and scientific analysis,” he said.
The climate change committee had been hearing submissions from Irish Farmers’ Association president John Bryan on the damage that the targets set out in the Bill would do to the industry.
Mr Bryan, who said on Tuesday that he was confident the Bill could be defeated in its present form, claimed that the Bill went 8 per cent over the 20 per cent emission reduction target set by the EU by 2020.
Achieving that target could only be achieved by a drastic reduction in the national cattle herd, which would mean agriculture could not expand. Production would go to other countries, where there were higher emissions from farming.
Prof Gerry Boyle, director of Teagasc, said the targets outlined in the Bill would have a catastrophic impact on farming and to achieve them there would have to be a dramatic cutback in the national herd.
He said emissions could be achieved in areas of farming like grazing practices and handling of manures, which were compatible with efficient farming practice.
However, he added that there was not yet enough scientific research on how to control the methane emissions from animals which accounted for 50 per cent of the emissions from agriculture.
Green Party TD Trevor Sargent defended the provisions of the Bill and said it did not exceed the EU targets. He said not enough attention was being given by farmers to the damage being caused to them by climate change.
“In my area, farmers are telling me they are now unable to plant fields they have used for years because of the wet conditions,” he said.