Fianna Fail and Fine Gael sign their political death warrant as they ram lofty rhetoric and greenwashing down our throats, at a cost €125 billion to the taxpayer in one way or another, which will have a profound impact on every rural community.
This pie-in-the-sky fanatical climate action plan will cost three times more than the bank bailout, funded primarily by borrowings, ramps up living costs for every Irish citizen, while doing absolutely nothing to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Rural Independent Group.
Reacting to the publication of the plan, the Leader of the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Mattie Mc Grath, stated:
“Lofty rhetoric is expected from the Greens, but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are now selling rural communities down the swanny, just to hold onto power. Ministers, who are insulated from the pain, have today hammered every sector crucial to rural life, including agriculture and transportation, with increased living costs, ending both turf cutting and rural one-off housing, as part of their climate action plan.”
“The Rural Independent Group is the only grouping in the Dáil to exclusively oppose the legislation establishing the framework for today’s announcement.”
“Our initial appraisal of the government’s 200-page climate action plan shows it disproportionately targets all rural residents for skyrocketing increases to living costs and removal of ways to earn a living. Warnings by our group around the damaging impact of climate change policies and devolution of power to an unelected quango have now come to pass, as this plan outlines a deep reduction in emissions to transportation and agriculture.”
“Cumulatively, the sectoral emissions reduction targets for agriculture, for instance, will extensively eradicate farms and carry a significant risk of damaging the economy outside of Dublin.”
“In rural communities, agriculture is a key pillar of economic activity and job creation, thus the up to 30 percent emission reduction target potentially means a staggering €3.8 billion hit for the rural economy, according to research by KPMG. This is primarily due to the current technology no longer being sufficient, the transition unplanned with the only outcome resulting in deep cuts to the national cattle herd.”
“The government has been using slippery language around any potential cut to the national cattle herd, such as claiming a ‘sustainable’ solution would be optimal, while the Agriculture Minister has announced that funding under the new CAP strategic plan 2023-2027 would only fund 40 per cent of the suckler herd. We will not be fooled by such cynical spin.”
“In fact, when asked at today’s press conference to clarify potential cuts to the national herd due to the climate action targets, the Taoiseach failed miserably to confirm that no cuts would occur.”
“The government has utterly failed to protect Irish agriculture from this injurious plan. They have also failed to protect rural citizens, who require a car to travel to work or take the kids to school, while aggressively slashing the transport sector and increasing taxes and charges.”
“These proposed carbon budgets will have a destructive impact on society and the economy and will expand the costs of living even further, while chipping away at our food production capacity into the foreseeable future.”
“This plan also has a bitter bias against the common car, through a new electric vehicle target, which essentially translates into every-single-new-car purchased from 2024, required to be electric. This is despite a lack of charging stations, unreliable electricity supply and skyrocketing electric costs, not to mention the high price of these new cars. To add further irony, manufacturing of EVs results in even more emissions than the car will actually reduce in its lifetime, according to research by the hoover think-tank. Therefore, such logic is completely insane.”
“Ultimately, this plan, even if implemented, would not reduce enough the warming allegedly driving us to catastrophe, despite the government’s fanatical approach to climate change. Whatever the damage to the Irish economy this government may agree to, countries like China – which emits around 300 times as much greenhouse gases as Ireland, and more than the whole developed nations combined, will not comply no matter what they say for the cameras at photo-ops.”
“Proceeding with damaging carbons budgets and action plans in isolation, without analysis of the costs and benefits, is downright reckless,” according to Deputy Mc Grath.
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