Climate Bolloxolgy.

So the two main things that people want to cut in Ireland are air travel and Agriculture.

Im just wondering how many jobs that will cost, being that we are a small Island on the edge of Europe.

Imagine how many people working in Ireland who are citizens of other countries might feel about that.

Google, facebook, paypal and the like would never be able to get staff. Just have to move to cenbter of Europe where staff can cycle from the other countries to work for them.

I already hear people moaning about the amount of people now living in cities in the world and using up the precious city resources and wasting all that space in the countryside. I wish they would make up their minds.

Next we will be banning buses and trains as it will be the only transport left that produces carbon.

I had a lightbulb moment over the weekend. The government have put into law, or are planning to, reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. To meet this, and you read it here first, there will be unbelievable manipulation of numbers done over the years. I mean - UNBELIEVABLE. You'll see every leaf counted in the country and be told it captures X. Stuff like that.

To meet a 50% reduction, every man woman and child must reduce everything they do by 50%. Half your food, half your electricity usage, half your water use, half your data usage, half your driving, half your heating, half your clothes spend, half your beer 😱. That's it. It's simple. Halve everything. Are people going to do that? If not, how much will you cut? We're all impacted together by the climate, therefore we must all contribute.

Farmers are probably the only show in town to try capture carbon. Lots of talk here about selling/trading credits. Who's pocketing that? And the government see a few €€€ in that bull by starting to lay claim to the carbon stored in the soil!

Farmers will move to different enterprises if that's what the consumer wants. Fact is, consumers still want meat and dairy. We're good at producing it. Why would we change? Farmers will follow the money.

An example. Lets say we cut our dairy output by half. And we're the world leaders for trying to do something for the planet. And we're lauded and admired. The loss of the 50% of dairy will, 100% be filled by someone else. Most likely somewhere without the sustainability we have here. Do people think that us cutting is not opening the door for someone to take our place? The changes we make on this island will have such a teeny tiny impact, assuming everyone else changes nothing(good or bad) as to make no difference whatsoever. To lead we need to show how to produce in a sustainable way and be able to do it without polluting and making a few euro. Otherwise, our friends across the world will just go "Idiots - here buy our produce". If we can show it can be done others will follow. But no one will voluntarily do it if it means they are going to be poorer.

The hypocrisy of this government is something else

If you believe that is going to happen you are in fairy land.

Irealnd is a socialist country. Every time I see people applaud and defend ABP and AT - two organisations which are not answerable to or involved in the democratic process - I can barely believe it. The number of people on Boards who say things like: 'owning property is a priveledge and should be subject to heavy responsibilities' just boggles my mind. A nation of NIMBYs, where other people's business is 'their' business to manage.

Does any other OECD country have anything like Ireland's parochial 'local needs' planning policies and restrictions? They boggle the mind. An Irish person can move to Australia, buy residential zoned land anywhere and pretty much build what they like within code. Here it's, 'well ye wouldn't be from around here, now would ye?, or; we'd like to see you spend more of your money on making a quarter of the front of your house look like it was built from stone - no not that stone, my mate has a quarry, we like the stone from that. Those windows look like you might get a nice view, so we'd prefer you get ones with lots of glazing bars so it looks more faux elizabethan - that should fix your notions of clear views and getting above yer self. Oh, you can see a lake, can ye? Can't have that, make sure you plant the boundary with species of tree that will grow to at least 15-20m - that should fix your entitled notions. I can give you the name of a friend who sells really expensive semi-mature trees. Can't wait for nature to block that view, now can we?'

I wouldn't worry. You'll find Government will cushion the farming sector, and hit energy and transport instead.

Which will impact everyone - including rural households. But farming will be protected, far beyond its actual economic value.

what do you work at do you mind my asking?

This last bit is exactly the point being made by Irish Food Producers. The same argument of logic doesn't seem to apply to the country that supplies most of its food produce to Europe though

I don't know if the figures are right or wrong but you've said the claim is Irish agriculture (not just beef) can produce food for 40 million is wrong because we only produce enough beef for 30 million the 30 million being your figure.

Does nobody eat lamb, pork, cheese (or other dairy products), eggs, poultry. Surely if we produce beef for 30 million there must be enough for 10 million between the rest so your claim sounds like fake news.

I can't be sure of your not fake news tax figures because the your other claims seems unreliable but surely we should be promoting indigenous industry such as agriculture if so much of our tax take is reliant on FDI and I do accept a lot of it is.

Oh dear, i’ve heard it all now, we can all give up farming, Jeff Bezos is going to make us all rich, €5K for each Suckler cow you say, where’s me trailer i better tell Daisy, Maisie and Crazy that their time is up.

This is a discussion board. I am free to make relevant posts in any forum. It might have been more appropriate to come back with an argument about how and why farmers should be the only industry to be self-regulated.

I've no opinion on whether it's required, it is simply a fact that Revenue figures demonstrate that farming cases generate more income from PAYE employment than from farming. Bear in mind, the contention being made by some is that agriculture is the chief source of rural income, when it isn't even the chief source of farmer income.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/research/farming-profile-2020.pdf

Judging by the comments on here it seems to me that if Martin and Vradkar think hitching their wagon to the "climate change bollixology" will get them reelected they have made a big mistake.

"the only industry to be self regulated" are you having a laugh. Just goes to show how much you know about farming.