The Rural Independent TDs group have said that recommendations on the carbons budgets put forward by the Climate Change Advisory Council would “destroy the existing way of life in rural Ireland.”
Deputy Mattie McGrath says that “proposals to reduce the suckler cow heard to as low as 20,000 cows in one of the five scenarios outlined in the report completely undermine the important role played by farmers to promote sustainable grazing and its beneficial impact in sequestering carbon.”
The group called on the government to make a special dispensation for the agricultural and transport sectors in rural Ireland, where a lack of public transport means no alternatives exist.
Deputy McGrath said the proposed carbon budgets will have a destructive impact on society and the economy and will increase the costs of living even further, while chipping away our food production capacity into the future.
