The Government has been called on to issue a definitive commitment that it will not impose any mandatory cuts to the national herd as part of its efforts to reduce emissions from the agriculture sector.

Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan said such a commitment would protect the economic interests of Irish farmers.

Nolan was speaking in relation to this week’s Irish Farmers Journal story, which reports that Brazil’s beef exporters association predicts that cattle numbers there will expand by 24m head by 2030.

“It is time for the equivocation and ambivalence to end. We cannot and should not accept a situation to develop whereby one of the strongest sectors in Irish agriculture is effectively sacrificed for what amounts to a miniscule and irrelevant contribution to the global reduction in emission numbers.

“The recent projections by Brazilian exporters have made this abundantly clear,” she said.

Laughing stock

Nolan said there is now a very real chance that the Government is going “to make Irish farming the laughing stock of Europe and beyond, because of the imposition of absurd, economically self-destructive policies which have no chance whatsoever of making the kind of difference for which they are being pursued.”

“We have already seen the negative prospects for beef farmers outlined in the Government’s own independent assessment of the economic, social, environmental and human rights impacts of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.

“Do we really want to continue down this path when it is now abundantly clear that other major beef-producing countries such as Brazil are only too happy to totally ignore environmental objectives in the pursuit of competitive advantage?

“Is Ireland really ready to offer up our farmers in the face of such indifference?

“Government must get honest on this matter, but it must also be ready to stand over the harsh and unavoidable economic realities that its polices are creating,” Nolan said.

Brazilian numbers

The projected increase in Brazil’s cattle numbers is equivalent to 25 times the size of Ireland’s total suckler cow population.

It will see the South American country’s national herd increase to over 210m by the end of the decade.

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Brazil to add 24m cattle as Ireland plans to cut herd