Climate Action Plan will go to Cabinet this week

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan says the plan will see a smaller national herd — but the government will look to protect the family farm

Environment minister Eamon Ryan said the Climate Action Plan will include a deposit plan for plastic bottles, electric transport, and a move into green careers to encourage 25,000 apprenticeships to carry out an extensive retrofitting plan.

The Climate Action Plan will go to Cabinet this week, the environment minister has said, saying that the plan will need to be "inclusive".

The Government will this week set out how it expects different sectors to hit the targets laid out by the Climate Change Advisory Council in last week's carbon budgets. 

There will be much focus on how big an ask will be put on the agriculture, energy and transport sectors.

However, Eamon Ryan told Newstalk Breakfast that the Government will look to build better systems across the board and that “our process has been politically inclusive".

"Every country now needs to do what Ireland is committing to do, which is to halve our emissions in a decade," Mr Ryan said.

"That's beyond compare challenging."

I think we can, in an international arena now, start to stand up and say 'Ireland isn't a bad example here'.

Mr Ryan said the Government's plan will see a smaller national herd but will look to protect the family farm.

"If we're going to change that system, we will not do it just by pointing the finger at people, blaming people, making people feel bad about it.

"We need to create a better system.

"Agriculture will take longer — but we can and will deliver a better agricultural system as we change it.

"The national herd will be smaller and the key metric is: Can we protect the Irish family farm model?"

Mr Ryan acknowledged that the Climate Action Plan will include a deposit plan for plastic bottles, electric transport, and a move into green careers to encourage 25,000 apprenticeships to carry out an extensive retrofitting plan.

Meanwhile, finance minister Paschal Donohoe denied that Ireland would be "taking a big stick” to Irish farmers in the plan.

"We're not taking a stick to anybody and this is the kind of language that undermines our ability to make a case that is positive about transition into a lower carbon future by managing the genuine threat that we face to our civilisation and way of life," Mr Donohoe said.

It is the case that we will be asking our farmers to play a role and an important role in how we reduce our emissions. 

"But we will be asking everybody to do that. And we're particularly conscious of the needs and challenges with farming, and we're committed to supporting our family farms in this very important transition."

Mr Donohoe said he disagreed with his former advisor Ed Brophy that growing the dairy herd was a mistake.

"If I look back on the last decade, and the many challenges that we have had and faced, the expansion of dairy herds would not be one of the things that is a cause for anxiety for me.

"I don't believe it was a mistake. 

"Irish farming has shown its ability to meet the dairy needs of the world in a very carbon-efficient way, but what we need to do now is acknowledge that we all need to do better. 

"I've already seen the progress that Irish agriculture has made for example, with relation to the diet and how we support our herds in relation to what we can do with generic merit of our herd in the future, and also how we can use better make better use of fertilisers," the finance minister said.

"These are very positive things that we as farmers and government can do together that will reduce the emissions contribution of our country for the years to come. And that's the kind of dialogue we'll be moving into."