Climate change targets for the agriculture sector may not be decided upon until September as crunch talks continue with Government Ministers.
Cabinet Ministers were expected to learn the sectoral carbon emissions cut for farmers but following “tense” meetings between Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, the pair have yet to come to an agreement.
Under the Government's Climate Action Plan, which was published last year, the agriculture sector was told it would be obliged to reduce its emissions by between 22% to 30%.
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Rural Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs, including Minister McConalogue, want the emissions cut to be 22%. However, Minster Ryan is pushing for 30%.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tanáiste Leo Varadkar and Minister Ryan were meeting again late on Tuesday to try nail down an agreed target.
A senior Government source said: “Talks are continuing and nothing has been agreed yet but this could now be pushed out until September. Both Ministers understand the pressures each person is under.
“You have rural TDs and farmers on one side and then NGOs and green party backbenchers on the other. It’s likely the target will be somewhere in the middle of 22% and 30%.
“The target will have to be somewhere in the middle, both sides will be unhappy.”
The Irish Farmers Association is sticking to its guns on calls for a sectoral carbon emissions cap of 22%.
Its North Leinster/Ulster Regional Chair, Frank Brady, says farmers are ‘willing’ to play their part to help reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions.
But he said anything higher than the lowest end of the scale can’t be done as “it will devastate everything”.
“We all want to do what’s best because we all want to leave this planet a better place than when we came into it,” he said.
"They know the problems and there is not a farmer in Ireland that is not willing to do their bit for the economy and carbon synchronisation. Anaerobic digesters, solar panels - we are quite happy to do all of that.
“Some farmers are rewilding, not an awful lot now, but they are rewilding. But the farmers are worried about carbon leakage,” he added.
“If we don’t produce this food in this country... it’s going to go to other countries that are not as efficient as us.”
Mr Brady says “about 90%” of the food produced on Irish farms is exported but he was adamant reducing “herd numbers won’t make that much of a difference” even though 60% of agricultural emissions come from animals’ letting off gas.
“There’s a lot of expertise coming down the road,” he continued.
"A man rang me yesterday with a long term goal to feed the cows that will cut the methane by nearly 80%,” he added.
“Going forward, we can do all of these things. We just need the technology and... it has to be 22%. This was a figure picked by the government and if we were picking a figure, we would be picking 18%.
“We’re not happy with it, but we are willing to work with it. We just need a culture of being able to produce and becoming carbon friendly.
“There’s a reason we are the highest emitters - because we are the biggest industry in Ireland.
“We supply and feed a lot of Europe and if they are not getting it from us they are going to get it from countries with much higher carbon leakage. Great Britain needs to be fed as well.
“We are not asking [others] to pick up the slack."
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