Jennifer Whitmore
Wicklow · Social Democrats · Ireland
“The Minister for justice recently brought in reforms for the criminal justice legal aid system. While we all recognise that there is a need for reform within the system, the reforms that the Minister has brought in are ill-considered, not backed up by data or evidence and have led to absolute chaos in the courts system.”
“Hundreds of jurors were recently told that their services were no longer required. Many vulnerable people in the legal system are falling through gaps.”
“A hosepipe ban will come into force in a number of counties on the east coast from tomorrow. I completely understand that because we are seeing record temperatures and are in the middle of dealing with the climate crisis and climate change.”
“In 2024, 1,000 incidents of antisocial behaviour were recorded on Dublin Bus. That was nearly double the figure recorded just a few years earlier. Unfortunately, this is not just limited to Dublin. We are also seeing instances of this in my constituency, Wicklow, on Go-Ahead services.”
“More than 1,000 people died in Spain due to heat-related causes in June of this year alone. By early July, Spain had 14 major forest fires and 50,000 ha of land had been burned. Across Europe, more than 10,000 excess deaths associated with the recent heatwave were recorded in a single week. These warnings have to be taken seriously.”
“As a family member, you wonder if the person is getting care, whether they are being fed properly and whether they are being looked after. There is no visibility. There is a dementia care home in Shankill that a lot of people from my constituency use, St. Joseph's. It is incredible. I visited it recently.”
The complete record
Every one of 864 lines we hold for Jennifer Whitmore, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 17 of 18.
“Even the fact that we define greyhounds as an agricultural animal enables a workaround with animal welfare practices. Consider canine artificial insemination. Vets have been banned from using that on dogs but they cannot ban it for use in greyhounds because greyhounds are considered an agricultural animal. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Heydon, that we need to ban greyhound racing in Ireland. We certainly should not be funding it. We have not seen changes in animal welfare standards in the industry. We are not going to see changes in those standards and the way dogs are treated. It is not by all owners. I absolutely will attest that it is not all owners but the industry itself is inhumane and is built on inhumane practices. I ask the Minister to consider banning it in line with and following on from other countries.”
“It is an agricultural issue. The Minister spoke about forestry. I agree; it is bizarre but it is a matter for the Minister for agriculture so it is appropriate to talk about it today. Ireland is an outlier because not only do we allow greyhound racing to happen but we give it an awful lot of money - €20 million - every year. If one compares that to what some charities get to provide fundamental services, one will appreciate that €20 million is a huge amount of money. It is time to look at this. I will not call it a sport because it is not a sport, it is an industry. I think that the Minister, Deputy Heydon, would agree with that. It is time to look at this industry. It is inherently cruel and is built on practices that amount to animal abuse. There is a huge number of fatalities and injuries every year.”
“There was a 50% increase in the number of fatalities and injuries in 2024 compared with 2023. There are major animal welfare issues associated with this industry. It does not just relate to Ireland; it is across the globe. That is why so many countries have banned it. Only seven countries allow greyhound racing. Of those seven, New Zealand will ban it from 2026 and Wales said this week that it will ban it. Ireland is an outlier not only in that we allow greyhound racing to happen but that we support it.”
“What is Ireland doing to drive that and be actively involved to make sure we are doing as much as possible to bring countries together with similar concerns to ours to make sure this deal does not go through? If this deal goes through, it will benefit a lot of countries in the EU but Ireland is one of the countries that will be severely damaged by it, particularly the agriculture sector. Will the Minister actively try to get that grouping together to make sure this deal cannot go through, particularly in its current form? It feels strange to talk about greyhound racing in an agricultural debate but it is an agricultural issue. A report today stated that 202 greyhounds were killed last year on the track or as a result of racing. That is the highest number of greyhounds killed since records began.”
“There is still no clarity over what it will mean for the agricultural sector in Ireland. The EU Commissioner for Trade spoke about a fund that would support farmers if they were negatively impacted but in the next breath he said there would not be a fund. There is a lot of uncertainty, leading to the further undermining of people's trust. Farmers need clarity and to know what could be coming down the road. In the Minister's opening statement, he spoke about the measures he has taken and said he has been raising this at an EU level. Has the Government submitted its formal opposition to the Mercosur deal? That should happen. I know a voting bloc is required.”
“Many smaller players in the horticulture sector do not have the capacity to make these payments upfront and then get the money back in a number of months. I ask the Minister to revise that scheme and look at it from an emergency perspective. It is particularly problematic for small players. Only capital costs are covered under the scheme; loss of crops is not covered nor ancillary costs. It would be useful if the Minister looked at that. I also want to refer to Mercosur. It is a global issue that could have a huge impact on our agricultural sector. It is not often that the environmental and agricultural sectors in Ireland stand side by side against something but they do concerning Mercosur. Perhaps they come from different angles but both areas see huge problems with the EU ratifying and going through with this trade agreement.”
“From an agriculture perspective, one of the sectors particularly hit was horticulture, which lives on the margins anyway. Many businesses have quite precarious futures and struggle to make ends meet a lot of the time. The Minister reopened the scheme for the horticulture sector, which I welcome but there are some gaps in the scheme. It could be revised to ensure it puts supports where they are needed and when. The scheme is not designed to be an emergency-based scheme which is exactly what the horticulture sector needs, particularly the smaller players. There are difficulties for people in the sector in relation to the application form, the paperwork required as part of the scheme and the fact that it is a reimbursement scheme.”
“I also worked in aquaculture for quite a while; I spent far too many years cleaning out fish tanks across the country. There is a long history of agriculture and the marine. We face many challenges but I share the Minister's optimism. If we get this right, it could continue to thrive and offer so much hope to many communities but a lot of challenges are to be faced. We have to start thinking outside the box. The business-as-usual approach will not work. Environmental issues are hitting us at the moment along with climate issues. There are also global considerations. There are many challenges but lots of opportunities as well. We had Storm Éowyn recently. There was a lot of discussion about it. It had a huge impact and hit many communities, particularly in the north and north west.”
“I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I too offer my congratulations to him and wish him the best for the term. I think it might be a very busy term; that is what my gut is telling me. We will see how it pans out. I also congratulate the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, on their appointments. This is my first time speaking as spokesperson for agriculture for the Social Democrats. Agriculture and the marine are cornerstones of Ireland both economically and culturally. They have played a huge part in many communities, families and lives; indeed, my own as well. My family was traditionally a fishing family. I worked in the area of fisheries for many years so I am looking forward to working with the Minister on that issue.”
“I ask that the Minister uses the Oireachtas committee as a way to investigate and examine this issue from an Oireachtas perspective. I am not sure when the committee will be set up but this should be the first item it considers, after which it can make recommendations to the Minister for his consideration as he goes through the subsequent process and dialogue.”
“I thank the Minister for his response. I am glad to hear this is not yet a done deal and the Minister still has serious consideration to give to it, including the fact he will consider the future for the workers, which is fundamentally important. We need to consider Ireland's position on our requirements to reduce waste. This country is way off and we will not meet our 2025 EU targets. We have a lot of work to do in the waste sector and this will only be done through a more public model. This has come out of the blue for many people. There were discussions last year but this was not in the programme for Government. It was not identified in any manifesto. There was no information on this prior to the election. When it becomes widely known, there will be a lot of concern.”
“If the CCPC was formally contacted on the same day as the Minister, it seems to me this is seen as a done deal. This undermines the Minister's position and his ability to row back on this. Perhaps the Minister could give me some information on that.”
“I concur with my colleagues on this. There are concerns for the workers' futures and for the future of the industry. If this sale goes ahead, we will have a 100% privatised model of waste collection, which is not what anyone wants to see, particularly in the public arena. It also flies in the face of Government policy of a just transition. This was set up primarily to support the workers in Bord na Móna to transition from brown to green. I have specific questions regarding the Minister's consent. He has repeatedly emphasised that it was Bord na Móna's view when he was reading out the issues. What is his view on it? What will he be taking into account when he gives his consent to this? It seems to me there is an assumption the Minister will give consent.”
“I again raise the issue of hormone replacement therapy, HRT, which I raised a couple of weeks ago. Free HRT was promised in the most recent budget and was due to begin in January. We have not yet seen it happen. I know the Minister has inherited this problem, but does she have a timeline for when it will be available to women who are experiencing the menopause? There are also issues in respect of the different menopausal products. Has the Minister sought to identify the supply chain issues?”
“The Government has failed to deliver real solutions and, until it realises that, the number of homeless children, families struggling to make ends meet and young people forced to leave this country will continue to rise. International investment funds, under the Minister of State's watch, will continue to find ways to drain the Irish coffers with the blessing of the Government. It is time for the Government to wake up, focus on real solutions and end this crisis that has gone on far too long and affected far too many of our people.”
“Let us take a step back and look at who is benefiting from this housing crisis. Where and what is the bigger picture here? It is clear it is the investment funds. They are raking in the profits while ordinary people are left behind. The Government allows these funds to avoid paying taxes and to bulk purchase homes that should be available for families to buy. The Government allows them to push up rents and monopolise the rental sector and provides them with tax break after tax break. Its solutions to the housing crisis always revert to type - subsidise the big players. The housing crisis is not just an economic one, it is a moral one. It is a failure of leadership and a failure to protect those who need it most.”
“Is it the 60% of young couples delaying having children because they simply do not have the space or stability to raise a family because they cannot find or afford accommodation? Is it the 440,000 young adults who are still living with their parents, unable to afford their own homes? Or is it the young people the Minister of State's Government, through policy failures, are driving out of this country? In the past year alone, 69,000 people have left Ireland to go overseas for a better future. This is not because they cannot find jobs here - they have jobs - but because they cannot afford or find anywhere to live. When the Minister of State sits down to devise his housing plans, who does he think about? Who does he prioritise? Right now, it does not seem to be the vulnerable families and young people struggling to get by.”
“What could be normal about children who experience developmental delays because they are forced to live in overcrowded, cramped conditions? What is normal about children who cannot learn to crawl or walk properly because there simply is not enough space for them to do so? What is normal about children who cannot invite their friends over to play, not because they do not want to but because they do not have the space or are ashamed of their living conditions? When the Minister of State sits down to devise housing policy, who comes to mind? Who does the Government think of? Is it the people struggling to make ends meet, who pay extortionate rents and live in constant fear of eviction?”
“When will the penny finally drop? When will the Government get that its approach to the housing crisis not only means it is incapable of solving it, but is making it worse for tens of thousands of people across this country? The numbers tell a grim story. A total of 15,000 people are living in homeless accommodation and 4,500 children are living in single rooms in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. These children are not just statistics. They are the faces of a growing crisis. In the past year alone, the number of children experiencing homelessness has increased by 12%. Child homelessness has been normalised by the Government. Let me be very clear. This is not normal. There is nothing normal about child homelessness.”
“I ask the Minister of State whether more X1 and X2 services can be provided during the day to equate to what people had prior to the BusConnects roll-out and whether the 84X route can be brought back because it worked very well, unlike this expanded route.”
“Under the BusConnects programme this is now being covered by the X1 and X2. There are a couple of problems with this. It now takes perhaps half an hour longer for the Xpress service to get to where it needs to go because of the changes, but as well as that the NTA has dropped a number of daytime services so it is now only a rush-hour service. My message to the Minister of State is this: if it is not broken, please do not fix it. The 84X was an excellent service that everyone appreciated. The service should have been expanded rather than being reduced and being made take longer. It is incredible that under the “transformative” BusConnects programme, as the Minister of State called it in his reply, transformation means Xpress services are taking 20 to 30 minutes longer than they did. That makes no sense.”
“I thank the Minister of State. On reliability and improvements, there have been some improvements, but when we are still missing services that is going to hugely impact on the people who require that particular bus. For example, the bus from Newcastle has been frequently dropped. If there are improvements in say, the L3 in Delgany, that is not going to make any difference to the person in Newcastle who needs to get to work. It cannot be the case that there are slight improvements. We must see reliability across the whole system. Every bus that is due must turn up on time when it is meant to turn up and where it is meant to turn up. I raise also the Xpress services. In Greystones we had the 84X Xpress service. It was a very good service that got people from Greystones into town in good time. It was run by Dublin Bus and was reliable.”
“They are going to be taken from Dublin Bus and given to other operators. One of those routes is in west Wicklow in my constituency: the 65 that goes from Ballymore Eustace through Blessington into Dublin. Can the Minister of State confirm that the 65 route is going to be privatised and can he explain why when we see so many failures with the current privatisation of the system?”
“This impacts everybody, but what has been raised with me is the huge problems that are caused for people with disabilities when their buses do not show up. As I said, Go-Ahead Ireland has been contracted to provide this service. I understand a new tender has gone out and I think the company is also to get the new contract. Why is that and how is the Government going to be sure the company is going to be able to fulfil that? Dublin Bus provided the service on many of these routes previously. It was in a much better position to provide this service and it is problematic when we see this privatisation, especially when the private operators are not able to provide the service. I want to ask the Minister of State about this because I have been told a number of other routes are going to be privatised.”
“This should have been a positive news story but because Go-Ahead Ireland was not prepared, it completely undermined things and still has not got fully on top of it. I had a meeting with the company. Apparently it did not have enough mechanics, which it is now recruiting. There is a really serious question here about why Go-Ahead Ireland got this service. How was it contracted to provide this service when it is not able to fulfil the most basis terms of service, namely, that a bus shows up when it is timetabled to do so? That is something I would like the Minister of State to examine in his role. If we contract out, those contractors are being paid to do a job and they must be able to do that job.”
“There were quite a number of false starts with it but it was eventually rolled out a number of weeks ago. Unfortunately, when it was rolled out, the provider was not ready for it. GoAhead Ireland was contracted to provide a service under the BusConnects programme, and it was clear that it did not have enough staff or capacity to actually roll this programme out. We had an incredible situation where three, four or five buses in a row were being cancelled on particular routes and there were drivers who did not know where they were meant to be going. People were really frustrated. College kids could not get to college and people were missing interviews. It caused enormous difficulties for people when it should have been a positive addition to the locality.”
“I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role and wish him the best in it. Public transport is a key challenge facing the country, but there is a lot of potential there to provide a service that will benefit so many communities across the country, and it is a vital service that we need to invest in and make sure operates properly. Key to any really good, successful public service is reliability. If it is not reliable, it completely undermines the whole system. People and the public have to have trust that a bus will show up when it says it will show up. We have seen the BusConnects programme being rolled out across Dublin and, in particular, I will talk about north Wicklow over recent weeks. This programme has been talked about and promised for a long time.”
“The year-on-year increase in road fatalities is a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done. If our roads are safe for our children, they are safe for everyone. I would like the Minister of State to keep that in mind.”
“As has been mentioned, there is a bureaucratic gap or barriers in place in that schools must apply to be part of the programme and then be assessed, following which the application goes to the council. There are so many different steps involved when it is often very apparent to the council engineers what the problems are and which schools and routes need to be made safer. Having those bureaucratic steps is just adding long timeframes to these especially crucial projects that are needed in a far more timely manner. We need to redirect our approach to road safety by prioritising pedestrians and ensuring the safety of all road users. This requires adequate funding, effective enforcement of speed laws and a commitment to creating safe pathways for children.”
“In my county we have a lot of narrow roads, uneven surfacing and potholes. We are heavily dependent on cars and many of our schools are on rural roads that do not even have footpaths. I welcomed the Safe Routes to School initiative launched in 2021, but the speed of the roll-out of these programmes is far too slow. In 2021, three schools in Wicklow were part of phase 1 of the initiative. They were only connected in 2024. Considering those projects really consisted of putting up bollards, changing the colours of the road markings and putting up signage, it seems a very long delay for a simple project that is so important for the safety of our children. We have over 100 schools in Wicklow, so at that rate it will take many decades to connect them all through the Safe Routes to School programme. That is something we need to focus on.”
“I will highlight a specific area of my constituency, namely, the town of Glenealy where there is speeding of often dangerous levels on the main street right beside a primary school. There is a lack of road markings, ramps and pedestrian crossings, all of which exacerbate the problem. This puts residents and visitors at risk. Wicklow County Council says it does not have the money to upgrade these roads so we can see clearly how the gap between the safety needs of a community and the funding provided to the councils is causing many difficulties and safety concerns in communities across the country. I wish to focus on the issue of getting our children safely to school. Surely the most basic thing we should be providing is a safe route for children to walk to school. That is not the case, however.”
“I would appreciate the Minister of State looking into the matter in detail. I welcome the new speed limits introduced last week but speed limits alone are not enough. We need proper enforcement with sufficient Garda numbers and well-maintained infrastructure to ensure safety on our roads. One of the major challenges we face is the lack of adequate funding for councils to implement necessary safety measures. Simple measures like road markings and traffic lights can take years to introduce because councils are waiting on specific funding streams. This delay puts lives at risk and undermines any efforts to create safer roads. If councils had access to more funding for road infrastructure, they could proactively address safety concerns rather than reactively respond to incidents.”
“Our current approach to road planning prioritises the supremacy of cars over the safety of pedestrians. It is time to turn this approach on its head. It is no secret that Irish roads were and still are designed with cars in mind, often at the expense of pedestrian safety. In the first seven months of last year, there were 113 road fatalities nationwide and a third of those victims were under the age of 26 years. I mention the number of hit-and-run incidents we are seeing, which I understand accounted for 10% of serious crashes in the last two months. I think of the families of Joe Drennan and Shane O’Farrell, who are still fighting for justice for their family members. This is an area we need to focus on. There seem to be more hit-and-run incidents than I can ever remember hearing reported.”
“That scheme is a good idea if he could get it up and running quickly and ensure they could be the first beneficiaries but, if not, some assistance must be given to them to enable them to get through this period. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. It is a very important discussion we are having. We need to have more of these discussions to make sure that when the next event happens we are as prepared as possible to withstand it and that our communities are as supported as possible so that we do not see the kinds of impacts on people that we have seen over the past couple of weeks.”
“The programme for Government, like the motion, refers to an extreme weather event assistance scheme. I welcome that scheme. It is an important initiative, but it will be designed as we move forward. I ask that the first pilot relating to that scheme be targeted at the horticulture sector. Its members play such a huge part in our food security. They create thousands of jobs and add a lot of value to our economy but they are also a part of our agricultural sector that struggles. They live on very tight margins and I fear this storm may have been so catastrophic for some of them that they may find it very difficult to get past it. Will the Minister provide supports to them?”
“On farmers, we talk a lot about a fair transition and how we can assist different communities in making the changes we need them to make. However, we also need to talk about fair transition in the context of how we can support them when events like this happen and we see the significant impact of climate change on certain communities. When it comes to our agricultural community, particularly the horticulture sector, and the impact of this event, there is a real need to evoke the principle of fair transition and support those involved to deal with the aftermath. I spoke to quite a few horticulturists who had major damage done to polytunnels and to glasshouses. Many of them cannot get insurance and many will struggle to get their crops out this year. That is a key area on which the Government needs to focus.”
“We need to start looking at nature-based solutions to deal with such events. Nature will tell us very quickly where we have gone wrong. We can try to engineer our way out of much of this stuff but that is just not going to work. We really need to focus on adaptation and on how we can actually work with nature to adapt better to these kind of events, particularly when it comes to issues like flooding. I will be talking to the Minister about this in the future. The Arterial Drainage Act - we obviously had a great deal of discussion about this on the climate committee - needs to be reformed. A focus should be placed on doing that. If we are talking about flood prevention and managing our land better, it is something we should certainly consider.”
“A good way of doing this would be to have a special Oireachtas committee. I am not sure if that is something the Minister would consider. It would be a really useful exercise because we could engage with communities, stakeholders and the public and ask them what they would like to see happen next time and what would have helped them on this occasion. We could bring in all the agencies and ask what did they did and what they could have done better. That is the kind of rigorous analysis we need. I ask that the Government consider what I am proposing. It would be a useful exercise. Just before the Minister of State for heritage contributes, I want to comment on the immediate response in the context of how we will deal with such an event in the future. In the context of adaptation, there was mention of potential flooding events.”
“I was on RTÉ radio at the weekend and I heard about the case of a young woman who has a dialysis machine and who was left at home. She had to make her own arrangements to get somewhere in order that she could access electricity to run her machine. We need the HSE and GPs to be involved. GPs indicated that they were not contacted. It is clear that there are major gaps. While the Minister may say that the Government has a plan, either it was not followed or it was not sufficient to deal with the disaster that unfolded. Significant work must be done to resolve matters. Given that so many people felt both left behind and not listened to and because there are so many people who have their own experiences and who can, from their perspective, highlight the gap in the response, what we need to do is have a really good engagement with people.”
“How was it that one week after the storm, emergency hubs were only being set up? The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, was on the radio and said that there had been far too long a delay in getting everything set up. It is clear that there were problems with doing so. The one thing people from the west and the north west who rang radio stations consistently stated was that they felt abandoned and that no one was looking out for them. They were not getting direct contact from the Government. The ESB did an amazing job. It had thousands of people out in the worst weather - the type of weather that we would never consider going out in - and working in its call centres. The ESB did a really good job on this but it should not have been left to do it by itself. There should have been a whole-of-government approach.”
“It is not on the website that has the emergency framework. That document refers to storms in the context of different analyses and stories relating to Storm Ophelia. Background information is provided, but it is not listed there. There is a framework for flooding and others for maritime, rail and nuclear emergencies, but there is none for storms. The document was only updated in 2024. Maybe the Government has it, but it is not on the website where all the other ones are listed. I am delighted that the Government has a plan. Why did it not follow it?”
“That is the immediate response we need from Government. We also need to see a plan put in place in case this ever happens again. The reality is that something of this nature will probably happen. The Government did not have a plan, which I find quite astounding. There is an emergency framework plan for flooding. There are also plans for nuclear disasters and rail disasters. However, there is no plan for storms. I was surprised when I discovered that to be the case. The absence of a plan was clearly illustrated by the response to this storm. There was a chaotic feel to how the storm was dealt with. There was delay on the Government side. The ESB was responsible for doing the heavy lifting and-----”
“While I was engaged in research relating to that matter, I came across a modelling report from the EPA. This is the first time there has been specific modelling for Ireland in relation to the impacts of climate change on our country going forward towards the middle of the century. We are looking at a 1.1°C to 1.5°C increase in temperatures, primarily on the east coast. There is the potential for heatwaves and much more intense weather events similar to Storm Éowyn. It is clear we are moving that way but also that we have already moved that way. This is now our reality. The first thing the Government needs to do is make sure that all those people who need support, including financial and advisory support, have it. I refer here to all those individuals who really felt left behind over the past two weeks.”
“I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on their new roles. I look forward to working with them over the course of the next term. Over the past couple of weeks, we repeatedly heard the word "unprecedented" being used. Storm Éowyn was unprecedented. To a certain degree, we could never have prepared for a weather event of that extent. However, we could have prepared a whole lot better than we did. While the impact of the storm was unprecedented, it was not unforeseen. We have been repeatedly warned by all the different agencies and climate change experts that our weather events are going to become more extreme, that this is essentially a feature of the climate change that we have seen and that this will continue to be the case. I talked about the programme for Government earlier on in the context of climate issues.”
“It is not about investment; it is about making sure we have the right buses and the contracts are in place. We need to go back to a public system of public transport because then we can control exactly the kind of service is provided.”
“Two parents wrote to me whose 17-year-old children were last night dropped off on the N11 at 7.30 in the dark by a bus driver because he had not let them off at the previous stop and he went back to the station. I have followed that up directly with the NTA.”
“It will take a reliance on facts, and in the Government over the past five years, there was not much taking of evidence into its policies. It will also take a lot of courage. Unfortunately, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil do not have that courage to talk to farmers on an honest basis, work with them on that honest basis and help them prepare for the future. I also wish to mention transport. It is not just about investing in transport. I speak specifically about Wicklow but I know this affects other areas. The roll-out of BusConnects has been difficult and challenging for people. There are ghost buses, cancellation after cancellation, express buses that now take half an hour longer to get to where they should than they did previously and buses taking an hour to go ten minutes.”
“We need to give them the facts and say how our landscape and weather will change, what we need them to do and how we will support them to do it. We need a farming sector that works for farmers, nature and climate and offers good incomes for the farming community, food security for us as a country, a sustainable business for farmers and a future for generations of farmers in order that if somebody inherits a farm, they will not see it as a burden or wonder how they are going to cope. We want to be able to give them a future for their children as well. That is where we need, and should have seen, a vision from Government about how it will support and work with farmers so they can make the changes we will expect and need to see. All that takes a lot of work, planning from the Government and a lot of financial support.”
“There is a pretence always from the Government that it is fighting for farmers to help them overcome the challenges they face, whether regarding the nitrates issue or the reference in the programme for Government to recognising "the distinct characteristics of biogenic methane … and [advocating] for the accounting of this Greenhouse gas to be re-classified at EU and international level.” When those in the farming industry see that, they may think there might be a chance this could happen, but we all know it will not. The EU and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, are not going to change policy or reclassify the gas. What we need to do, rather than give false hope to farmers, whether through the nitrates derogation or in respect of this issue, is support them.”
“When we talk about adaptation, we must recognise that the climate has changed and examine how we are going to adapt our systems to deal with that change, whether that relates to infrastructural means or to changing how we operate such as, when it comes to issues such as agriculture, changing how, when and what we farm and protecting farmers in order that their income can continue. It is really important that adaptation plays a huge part over the next five years because we do not have a great deal of time to put those systems in place, as we clearly saw with Storm Éowyn and how ill-prepared we were to deal with that event. When I look at the agricultural aspect of the programme for Government, it is again clear that the relationship between the agricultural sector and the Government is based on false promises and disingenuous information.”