Farmers and rural communities feel they have been “singled out” and made to “carry the carbon can” according to one of Ireland’s farming organisations.
President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) Pat McCormack said it was wrong to ask farmers to foot additional costs when people responsible were having trade deals with countries “that have no intention of addressing climate change”.
ICMSA is a farming group representing approximately 18,000 dairy and livestock farmers in Ireland.
Mr McCormack warned that “farmers will not be made fools off” as the ICMSA prepares to engage with the Government over the Climate Action Plan.
“Farmers are responsible for a third of the emissions but we are taking 99 per cent of the blame. We need to see other sectors step up to the plate.”
He claimed that Ireland was “not just potentially damaging ourselves nationally for no good reason, but we are actually limiting ourselves in the single area in which we could have helped deal with a global problem.”
The news comes as members of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) will gather in Dublin on 21 November to highlight the importance of farming to the Irish economy.
LSL News.