The “example” set by Bord na Móna (BNM) on climate action “should now be followed by the agricultural sector”, Ian Lumley of An Taisce has stated.
Addressing the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee regarding the Climate Action Plan and its implications for the agriculture sector, the head of advocacy for the NGO commended the semi-state company’s “very dramatic” policy shift to move “from brown to green”.
He told committee members such action should now be taken by the farm sector which, he said, relies on “delusional greenwashing” and “spurious arguments” that “do not stand up to scientific scrutiny”.
Mr Lumley said: “Unless there is serious engagement with the reality of the threat that rural Ireland is now facing, with the continued direction of dairy intensification in particular, an enormous risk is posed.
“We want to see that averted. We already saw what happened with the midlands peat plants. We warned 20 years ago that building new generation peat plants in the midlands was ill-advised.
“Bord na Móna was initially proposing to drag out peat cutting until 2030. That was subject to major criticism from all the coalition organisations in Ireland and it would also have subjected Ireland to much international reputational damage.
“Bord na Móna has now taken a very dramatic new policy direction and sent a very clear statement we are moving from brown to green.
“The example set by Bord na Móna should now be followed by the agricultural sector and that is entirely incompatible with the current continued dairy intensification model.
“This model is based on carbon offsetting projections on grassland, forestry and hedgerows that simply do not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
“We must face up to reality and delusional greenwashing, rather than thinking there is a magic solution to evaporate methane.
“There is reputational risk for the agri-food sector in Ireland, which very much relies on this green image,” said Mr Lumley.
However, many of the committee’s rural-based members challenged An Taisce’s argument, pointing to the ramifications of BNM’s peat exit on the mushroom, nursery and wider horticulture sector since its announcement in January – particularly the consequential reliance on peat imports mainly from the Baltic States.
Matt Carthy Sinn Féin TD for Cavan-Monaghan said: “Many in the beef sector will have been concerned by what happened with the horticultural peat sector.
“As I see it, if we cannot extract horticultural peat in Ireland, the two options that are available to us are to import peat or export the mushroom sector.
“Is An Taisce suggesting that those sectors should essentially be wound up and that we should just lose the mushroom sector because we cannot produce horticultural peat?” he asked.
Roscommon-Galway independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice pointed to the economic impact of the closures of the ESB peat-fired power plants in Lanesborough, Co Longford and Shannonbridge Co Offaly this year, while describing the importation of milled peat and peat and coal briquettes as “totally off the wall”.
“The reality is that a farm of 40, 50 or 60 acres is not viable but for a person to have an off-farm job, as well as the farm, to keeps him or her viable.
“No more than when Bord na Móna workers had a bit of farming, then they were viable. When one is gone, however, then they are basically gone as a family in a community.
"We are now bringing in peat for the mushroom industry from another country. We are bringing in peat briquettes.
"I urge An Taisce, as an organisation, to be more positive to people in rural Ireland. Mr Lumley talks about An Taisce members in rural Ireland, but I would say not many of them ever put in a stone shore in average ground right around this country.
"An Taisce might have members living in rural Ireland, but I do not think they are from a farming background.”
