Clarity still lacking on emissions target as cabinet meeting looms

Minister Charlie McConalogue repeated on Sunday that he is hopeful of a decision being made this week, despite being only three days out from the final meeting of cabinet before the summer break.

Noel Bardon

24 July 2022

Clarity still lacking on emissions target as cabinet meeting looms

Farmers are still no further on to knowing where the emissions reduction target will fall. / Donal O' Leary

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has yet to reveal the direction which the negotiations on farming’s emissions reduction target for 2030 have taken, ruling out nothing in his commentary on the talks between himself and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan.There is just three days left until the final cabinet meeting of the summer, at which the two ministers indicated to the Irish Farmers Journal a decision could be approved.

There is just three days left until the final cabinet meeting of the summer, at which the two ministers indicated to the Irish Farmers Journal a decision could be approved.

Minister McConalogue was on Newstalk radio on Sunday morning, stating that negotiations were still progressing, but failing to give any concrete indication of a range narrower than the 22% to 30% reduction that negotiations had moved towards.

Coverage

The Minister responded to media coverage of the talks by commenting that there had yet to be a single, concrete narrative forming of progress between himself and Minister Ryan.

“I think anyone looking at the paper today, the only conclusion you could draw is that there isn’t any accurate assessment in the papers in relation to where the talks are at because there is all different headlines,” he told listeners.

When asked if a decision could be finalised on Wednesday, he answered that he hoped to conclude talks “in the best timeframe possible, ideally this week if we can”.

“I would hope that we can, but there’s a lot of work ongoing and obviously we are teasing out in detail the various measures that will be taken, which strikes that balance between continuing to back food production strongly and farm families in that regard, but also taking every step we possibly can to minimise and reduce the emissions footprint of food production.”

Backbenchers firm against 30%

The possibility of Government TDs resigning the whip should it be a 30% emissions reduction target that is chosen was not considered high by Fine Gael TD and former junior minister John Paul Phelan.

Phelan told the Irish Farmers Journal that a 30% target would be too high for most rural TDs to accept and that the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil backbenches were of the same view on rejecting such a proposal.

The Carlow-Kilkenny TD’s comments suggested that, as such, 30% would have to be ruled out in any cabinet decision.

“It [30%] can’t be agreed upon. This is not an ultimatum or anything, but 22% is ambitious and it should be - 30% is firmly in the zone of culling animals and there is no rural TD that would accept that, bar the Greens,” the TD said on Sunday morning.

“There’s not much difference at all across the backbenches on this,” he said.

Phelan also stated that although Minister Ryan had ultimate discretion in the proposal that he brought to cabinet, it would be the ministers’ collective decision that would be needed to finalise any plans to reduce farming’s emissions footprint.

“Ultimate power is with the cabinet. Minister Ryan can bring something forward, but it will have to be voted on by cabinet.”

Balance of power in talks

This suggestion that cabinet holds the power of the decision had been contested by Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy in Wednesday’s sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, where TDs from both within Government and outside called for the target to be set at the lower end of the scale.

Carthy alleged that Minister McConalogue had only played a minor role in negotiations, being merely “consulted” by Minister Ryan, the Green party leader, on where the target would land.

He also said that Sinn Féin’s position on a climate target for farmers could not be chosen until it received all data that had been available to the Department of Agriculture, which he said had been sought by Sinn Féin, but had not been supplied.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon responded to Carthy’s comments on Thursday by rejecting such claims.

“Their current climate spokesman Darren O’Rourke said his party has no position on where carbon emissions target should land for the agricultural sector,” said Minister Heydon.

“Sinn Féin have access to as much information as the rest of us. They are hypocritical and don’t want to take a position on a hard issue. Sinn Féin cannot be trusted when it comes to hard decisions,” he responded.

Opinion: we need a sectoral target as soon as possible