The carbon sequestration rights of forestry must rest with woodland owners, the leaders of both the IFA and ICMSA have insisted.

IFA leader Tim Cullinan claimed that the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue had entered “very dodgy ground” by claiming that the State owned the carbon credits from forestry, and he confirmed that the IFA was seeking legal advice on the matter.

“On the carbon credits [from forestry], we are seeking legal advice on that and it is a fight we will take on,” Cullinan said.

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“If the advice we get is that these credits should stay with the farmer, then they will have to stay with farmers,” he maintained.

ICMSA leader Pat McCormack agreed.

“The farmer is blamed for all the wrongs inside his gate, [but] this is the right. If it’s good for goose then it has to be good for the gander; it [the carbon credits] has to be in the ownership of the farmer,” he said.