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Agriculture was discussed for the first time in a televised leaders' debate in this year's election when Miriam O'Callaghan's asked the last question in Tuesday night's debate.
She told the four politicians, Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin, Joan Burton of Labour, Enda Kenny of Fine Gael and Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil that expanding the dairy herd and meeting Ireland's 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets were known to be incompatible, and asked them what choices they would make about this.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny was first to answer, defending both options simultaneously. "We will meet our targets between 2020 and 2030 because as we expand, we become more efficient," he said.
Tánaiste Joan Burton answered along similar lines, expressing confidence in progress through "technology over the time that we have by 2030".
Micheál Martin was most vocal in defending the dairy industry. "I don't accept that choice," he said, invoking "food security". He added that emissions from transport were a more pressing issue to meet our targets than those from food production and asked: "What is the point of depending on other regions that would have a worst carbon footprint that we have?"
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams concluded by offering solutions including "planting native trees", "stopping fracking", and developing renewable energy, without elaborating on the emissions from the dairy herd.
This is the first time ag has been even half mentioned in any leaders' debate. So much for farming propping up the economy in the bad times.
— IFJ Dealer (@IFJDealer) February 23, 2016
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