You limit democratic debate to two hours, and you stand here and lie to people.

Yes.

As long as the Minister does not take the opportunity to spread disinformation.

No, no, you said that-----

Hear, hear.

We have heard it all before.

If we are going to reduce carbon emissions, we will obviously have to measure them. One of the many failings of the carbon action plan was that it did not even set out how we were going to measure emissions but rather that the Government will decide how will do so, presumably by way of a statutory instrument. Will either the Minister or his colleague the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, tell me how we are going to measure emissions? Has that been determined by the Government? Whether we use the global warming po…

Garlic can be particularly difficult to grow, but I take the point about the necessity to replace imported horticulture with Irish horticulture. However, it will be difficult to do that when carrots are for sale at 49 cent per bag. There has to be some correlation between the price at which products are sold and the cost of production. I grew up in Clare and there was extensive market gardening in Kinvara, presumably supplying Galway mainly, and in Ogonnelloe, supplying Limerick. That is all gone because who can co…

I ask the Minister to provide the average value of each BPS entitlement per county in 2019 and 2020, respectively. I do not know if he will list every single county, but perhaps he might list a few counties at the top, a few counties at the middle and a few counties at the bottom. Of course, I have a particular interest in County Clare.

It is interesting, but not surprising, that the lowest is in the west and the highest is in the south east. I wonder if that is a general trend. I appreciate that the Minister does not have the figures and as I said at the outset, I did not expect him to have them all. Is that a general trend? It is interesting that the greening is a percentage of the entitlement. While agriculture per acre might be more productive in certain parts of the country than in others purely because they are gifted with better land and th…

The Minister made a point about small and medium-sized farmers, which is a bit of a misnomer. Will the environmental measures be capped at a certain size of farm? Someone could have a large holding of marginal land while someone else might have a much smaller holding of more productive land. If it is capped, it will penalise the person with the marginal land. For example, the Burren is productive and is renowned obviously, but it takes a sizeable acreage to feed a herd of cattle. Similarly, someone might have a lar…

When the beef task force was introduced, I predicted it would be a talking shop. I accept I was wrong and it was not even a talking shop. How it could not meet during the Covid-19 pandemic using Skype, Zoom or Microsoft Teams like the rest of us is beyond me. I completely agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh about feedlots. This growth of cattle coming out of feedlots is very much at odds with the image of Irish beef that the Minister is rightly seeking to portray abroad. It is an idea of cattle happily roaming the pastu…

It is regrettable that cattle coming from feedlots will benefit from the protected geographical indication, PGI, status applied for by the Minister, if his application is accepted. It will mean farmers who produce cattle in a more traditional way, that are never housed and are outdoors, perhaps in the Burren or wherever, during the winter, and are killed off the land must compete with huge feedlot producers. That is what destroyed agriculture throughout North America and we are letting it happen here. I invite the …

Is it done without concentrates?

I, too, welcome the increase in funding but the problems in the market need to be tackled also. In livestock production, organic farming is not attractive. We know there is a monopoly among a couple of big players in the meat business. They offer a pittance more for organic beef compared to non-organic beef, such that it is not economically worthwhile producing organic beef. One can go to independent abattoirs, however they are - pardon the pun - an increasingly endangered species for a variety of reasons. Only the…

You can get a vet but not a GP in rural Ireland. Like the Minister, I look forward to the plant at Moneypoint becoming a green energy hub. I hope hydrogen will be manufactured there using energy generated by harnessing the power of the Atlantic. In the meantime, it is slated for closure in 2025. The Minister suggested that decision might be revisited given the energy shortages. Will he give us an update on that? At the very least, will he assure us that we will not be importing energy because if we import energy, w…

I agree, but in the short term-----

I support the Minister of State’s stance on Poland and the importance of rule of law. However, in advance of criticising the rule of law in Poland, on which I share the views of the Minister of State, we need to reflect a little on the rule of law in Ireland. There are a couple of issues I would like to bring to the Minister of State's attention. First, the failure to properly promulgate in a timely manner the statutory instruments on restrictions for Covid-19 has been repeatedly criticised in this Chamber, as well…

It is not agreed.

We all knew this was going to happen. I do not see why it is being announced to the Dáil on a Wednesday evening. Why is the Order of Business constantly being changed at the behest of the Government? There is a Business Committee.