In Ireland we consistently take food supply for granted. This is largely due to the fact that we continuously produce more food than our population of 5m people consume. However, this wasn’t always the case, especially during the Great Famine in 1840s and 100 years later in the 1940s when the Second World War was raging.
Those who are old enough to remember the 1940s will have known about rationing books and food coupons which were then compulsory to purchase a rationed food supply for families to feed themselves. While it is unlikely that Ireland will ever experience this level of food shortage again, it is still foolish and imprudent to take food security for granted. Due to the war in Ukraine, there is now a serious wheat supply problem emerging, which could escalate to a scarcity of wheat-related consumables, including bread.
It is therefore vital that the current divisions between climate change activists and the Green Party and farmers as food producers be resolved. Of course, farming emissions will have to be reduced, which has been acknowledged by most farming organisations. Clearly the effects of climate change are now evident and will require maximum efforts from governments and administrations throughout the world to achieve global emission reduction.
However, in Ireland, it’s the scale of the proposed emission reduction that is at the hub of the current dispute, with Environment Minister Eamon Ryan seeking 30% reduction in farming emissions by 2030. In response, the president of the Irish Farmers Association has stated that 30% is unachievable and would effectively shut down Irish farming and devastate rural Ireland.
As a retired farmer, I think Minister Ryan is being unrealistic in seeking a 30% emissions reduction, given the importance of food production. It is therefore vital that the Government would fully value food security and allow the farming sector of the economy a lower and more achievable emission threshold.
Diarmuid Cohalan
Ballinhassig, Co Cork
Back to normality of self-destruction
Despite the overwhelming annual evidence of the dangers and threat posed to the planet and humanity by climate change and global warming, most of the world is carrying on with business as usual. One of the regular excuses given for this behaviour is that the world must keep turning because economies will fail if it stops, and this would lead to all kinds of catastrophes.
Wrong. Covid has proven otherwise. It stopped the world in its tracks for over two years. But instead of learning from the experience, mankind couldn’t wait to rush back to the job of self-destruction, ie normality.
And perversely, the war in Ukraine is giving us another chance to combat climate change with the immediacy it requires. The current and projected shortage of fuel and gas should be the catalyst for overnight change away from dependency on oil and gas. The world should embrace the unexpected opportunity to break the cycle of destruction caused by fossil fuels. Instead, we are moaning about the inconvenience the shortage of fuel and gas will cause. The terrifying truth is the current inconvenience will pale to nothing compared with the disasters global warming will heap on us.
The West and our allies have backed the Ukraine with billions of dollars to help it in its war with Putin. If the world really cares about climate change, it will set about printing billions to help the world in its war with global warming. The billions which would allow dirty industry to be neutralised in months and replaced immediately with clean, environmentally-friendly
industries. Money is the one thing we can control, and no excuse should be needed to do what is necessary to save our beautiful planet.
Tom Fitzgerald
Askeaton, Co Limerick
Government move legally unsound
Your front page on Wednesday rightly acknowledged the significance of the Government’s decision to change our refugee policies, which will mean that refugees travelling to Ireland from 20 European countries will now be required to hold a visa.
This change has sparked a national discussion. In any discussion, language is important and when it comes to international protection, using the correct terms is crucial. In Wednesday’s article you refer to the “suspension of the visa waiver for migrants” which should read “for refugees, and later to “migrants still seeking to come to Ireland under the International Protection programme”, which should read “asylum seekers or international protection applicants”.
Regardless of immigration status, everyone is entitled to have their human rights upheld, but I note the above to highlight how the terms used have different meanings in relation to legal rights.
An asylum seeker is looking for a type of international protection given to a person who can demonstrate that if they were returned to their country of origin they would be at risk of persecution, torture, or other inhumane treatment. Asylum is given to a person who can prove that they would be persecuted on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or the fact that they belong to a “particular social group”. If successful, they are recognised as a refugee.
The right to seek asylum was enshrined in international law following the atrocities of the Second World War. Refugee rights are laid out in the 1951 Refugee Convention, ratified by all EU member states. Seeking asylum is guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is legally binding and signed by Ireland (and all EU member states). Under international law, a state is obliged to accept an asylum claim in its territory or at its borders. This means that capping or limiting the number of asylum seekers is legally unsound, and ethically unsound when we consider that over 80% of the world’s refugees are hosted by low or middle-income countries.
The Government’s change to refugee visa requirements is a disproportionate response to a relatively small number of asylum claims. In protecting the integrity of the International Protection programme, our focus should be on systematic threats, for example, illegal pushbacks by EU states.
Aideen Elliott
Refugee and Migration Policy Co-ordinator, Oxfam Ireland
Cody a role model for all Irish society
Albeit that the story, in a very distinct sense, pertains to Kilkenny folk, the stature of Brian Cody in Irish life is such that it merits mention in this section of your paper.
Kilkenny people all over the world will, on football-final Sunday, sadly realise that the sense of loss that tinged their awakening is likely owing to Brian Cody having concluded his service to their county.
Cody will be remembered for many noteworthy reasons, not least his selflessness, lack of ego, and his devotion and passion to his native place and its tradition — and in that sense he is a unique role model for all of Irish society. Thank you Brian, not just for the memories, but for the positive impact on so many families.
Michael Gannon
St Thomas’ Square, Kilkenny
Feedback loop
Congratulations, everybody!
We have stuck ourselves in a feedback loop needing more energy in every season to keep us barely functioning. This loop is now turning into complete chaos.
Of course, Mother Nature has provided the antidote — going cold turkey, not only on greed but much else besides with two options available —doing it voluntarily or involuntarily. Everybody yelling “over my dead body!” will find that there is no shortage of people fighting amongst themselves to do just that to them; that much should be obvious already.
Liam Power
Dundalk, Co Louth
Showing example to fix housing crisis
Housing, what crisis?
According to the CSO, there are 166,752 vacant properties in Ireland currently, that’s 33 per 1,000. A town and hinterland with a population of around 20,000 converts to 660 vacant properties. Around two or three are not available or habitable, leaving around 220 which are or could be, with a little goodwill. At three double bedrooms per house on average, such a town could potentially house 1,320 housing-needs persons, refugees, or plain homeless, whether from Ukraine or Syria, direct provision, or other. Larger towns could accommodate multiples of this figure.
If you add single or double-occupancy large houses to this, the potential to accommodate Ukrainian and other refugees is enormous.
Three 3-4 bed houses in such a town, each with a single male person of identical circumstance and religion occupying them, come to mind. One would think that the Christian thing, even the human thing to do, would be to share one house and offer the other two for temporary housing for fellow human beings. The man in Cobh could lead the way.
In the words of the Gospel: “Carry each other’s burdens and you will fulfill the law of Christ.” [Galatians 6:2] Or “Contribute to the needs of God’s people and welcome strangers into your home.” [Romans 12:13] and “Truly, I say to you, as you do it to one of the least of these my brothers, you do it to me.’ [Matthew 25:36-40]
Housing, what crisis, there’s simply no excuse for not acting now.
Kevin T Finn
Mitchelstown, Co Cork
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB
