SPRING CHECK-UP
session allocated to address the issues of ‘Agriculture, food and land use’, the Assembly members were tasked with listening to and analysing five detailed presentations from five separate contributors including notable agri economics professor Alan Matthews of Trinity College, and Professor Gary Lanigan of Teagasc.
Any person who has ever sat through a college lecture will know that asking people to undertake such a mammoth task in such a short time is nonsensical and impossible.
My concerns at the limitations resulting from the brief time allowed were quickly realised in the question and answer session which followed the five presentations.
While a few Assembly members posed really excellent questions based on the reality of farming in Ireland today, many of the remaining questions displayed limited understanding of the issues covered in the presentations.
Take for instance the Government’s high profile Food Wise 2025 report with its targets of an 85pc increase in exports to €19 billion; a 70pc increase in value added to €13 billion and a 60pc increase in primary production to €10 billion.
This report was referred to by Professor Lanigan in his presentation and later raised by one Assembly member.
However, I detected little or no interest by any other members in a meaningful discussion on the obvious consequences of these targets on Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Mantra
In these regrettably hurried discussions where decisions are rushed into, it wasn’t surprising that it was Professor Matthews’ repeated mantra that “signals” — in the form of punitive taxes — must be sent to farmers, which won the day.
To me these proposed “signals” or punishments contain worrying echoes of methods adopted by some circus animal trainers of old which are now thankfully banned
It is unfortunate that the haste of the debate and decisions taken by the Citizens’ Assembly on these vital issues for agriculture has led to such scepticism in the farming community about the value of the entire Citizens’ Assembly process.
John Heney farms in Kilfeacle, Co Tipperary email: heney.john@ gmail.com