Independent TD Micheal Healy-Rae has clashed with Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly over the rumour that tens of thousands of Irish cattle are to be culled to meet climate targets.
According to an internal Department of Agriculture document released to the Independent.ie under Freedom of Information request last month, up to 65,000 Irish dairy cows may have to be removed from the “national herd” every year for the next three years for the farming sector to meet its sectoral emissions targets. This would reportedly cost €200m.
Up to 65,000 dairy cows may have to be removed from the national herd every year for three years at a cost of €200m if the farming sector is to meet its climate targets https://t.co/sFJRTGpBsE
— Irish Independent Business (@IndoBusiness) May 30, 2023
This was not the first time a proposal like this has been made, with the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year suggesting that cattle should be reduced by a third.
Study: Climate target needs livestock cut, more trees and rewetting https://t.co/DLVFw9Hvei
— Agriland (@AgrilandIreland) February 13, 2023
Both of these proposals have prompted intense debate and controversy, with rural politicians such as Independent TD Mattie McGrath saying that the plan would cause the “mass destruction” of rural Ireland.
However, proponents of the plan have defended it on the basis of meeting climate targets.
Debating the matter on Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show this week with Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly said that the framing of the issue was incorrect.
“First of all, it’s 100% wrong that there’s going to be a cull, or that there is any paper suggesting a cull,” she said.
“It’s 100% wrong. And Michael himself should know this, because it has been flagged that, no, there is not a cull. A cull is a completely different thing to reducing a herd over time.”
O’Reilly went on to explain the difference between a cull and a reduction in dairy herd size.
“What it is is that over time, farmers don’t restock to the same level as they did, so that over time, their herds are reducing. But it isn’t a cull, which is taking out cows and killing them.
“That’s not what it is. And that creates huge fear and anxiety amongst farmers. And I think that Michael knows that and is using it. And we have repeated this numerous times to Michael, but that’s not what it is.”
She added that the plan was “voluntary” and an “exit scheme” for dairy farmers, and said that she came from a dairy farming background herself.
However, Michael Healy-Rae said that this was “absolute rubbish.”
“What she’s doing is playing with words,” he said.
“A cull, reduction, reducing – what it means is that we’ll have fewer cows out there than what we have at present. And you know you’re talking through your hat.
“Remember one thing about Ireland and about who the real green people are; they’re the custodians of the countryside. What I’m saying to you is, it’s the green people who protect the environment in Ireland. And the real people who we should be listening to are the farmers, and I’m listening to young farmers.”
At this point the interviewer put it to Healy-Rae that farmers are looking for an exit scheme from the industry.
“The only reason people are talking about a scheme now for exiting is that they’re trying to make a bad thing look good,” Healy-Rae replied.
“Farmers want to be left alone…They want to be allowed to continue producing meat, producing beef, which they’re good at and better than anywhere else in the world. And you completely ignore the fact that we do it more efficiently than anyone else.
“You can’t tell me it’s a good idea for them to be cutting down trees in Brazil to clear ground, grow grass to have more beef to export it here to us, the same as what we’re doing with the importation of turf. If we’re so smart, why are we bringing in bales of briquettes from Germany now? We were producing them in Ireland before. You forgot about the horticultural industry completely. We’re bringing peat now from Latvia.”
The interview replied that “That’s a separate issue,” to which Healy-Rae insisted “It’s the same issue.”
Amid the debate and discussion, the Department of Agriculture has said that the proposal to cut herd sizes was just a “modelling document” and not “final policy.”
The State has around 2.5 million dairy and beef cows according to the provisional Irish June Livestock Surveyhttps://t.co/7jCSxkSpFJ
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) June 1, 2023
Previously, in 2021, Fianna Fáil Agriculture Minister denied vehemently that the government would cull Irish cattle, accusing critics of “whipping up fear and anxiety” around the issue.
Charlie McConalogue: ‘We won’t cull national herd for emissions targets. Rural independents are just whipping up fear’ https://t.co/3oif5eRGzk
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) November 6, 2021