Is the Government willing to change Irish agriculture and food policy based on the latest report today from the The EAT-Lancet Commission which sets out so clearly the science on the need for the whole world to change in order that we can feed 12 billion people, improve our health and ensure we stay within the planetary limits we risk tripping over? I grew up with the food pyramid and we have known for years that we must reduce the amount of beef and dairy we eat but today I see a food pie that is very clear. Half of our food is coming from vegetable and fruit and a huge amount of plant-based protein. I am glad it is still saying that we must eat dairy, beef and other food products because I eat meat too. However, I know for my health and for ethical reasons we need to change. It is not right for Ireland to follow a completely alternative policy to the one that is set out here. Our Food Wise 2025 plan is saying there will be great increase in meat consumption around the world and that we should get in there and massively expand our beef, dairy, pork and chicken industries to benefit from this and that we should be out there in a world where the growth in meat consumption will be an opportunity for us but the science is clearly saying the exact opposite. That market is going to dramatically shrink and it has to.

We need to change food policy. We had Macra na Feirme in here yesterday and we were in agreement with it that for the future of Irish farming, we need to look at this obsession Fine Gael has in supporting industry and big business doing well out of this, and they are the only ones doing well out of this obsession with meat, dairy, poultry and pork expansion. It is not the Irish family farm that is doing well. Sticking to the current massive expansion in meat, beef and dairy provides the opportunity to start paying Irish farmers better and to give them a more secure income by diversifying away from big international beef and dairy markets which is where the Government is leading them.

More than anything else, is it not hypocrisy for the Taoiseach to say we are going to cut back our own meat consumption but, as a country, we are going to sell and expand as much as we can when everything we know now from science and health is that we all need to adjust our diet from which we will all benefit? Irish farming should and will benefit from that. Will the Government change Food Wise 2025 and recognise the reality?

The Government wrote yesterday to the climate committee saying that it wanted to be a champion and that we wanted to be central to the process of doing what was right. One cannot say that in a letter and then not recognise the need for us to change our entire food and farming system. Does the Tánaiste agree with the science? Does the Government agree with the way it says the world is going to go and will it change Government food policy on the basis of that?

I do not think the Deputy is giving a fair reflection of what the food policy in Food Wise 2025 actually is. He talks about massive expansion in beef production, which we are not planning for. We are planning for a sustainable and controlled expansion, particularly in the dairy industry, but we are not talking about significant expansion of beef production. What we are doing is recognising the fact the Irish food industry and indeed family farms across this country survive in terms of their income on the back of the reality that Ireland is a very significant food exporter.

We continue to explore and develop new markets but the way in which the Irish food industry contributes to a global challenge of climate change is to show how it can be done with the lowest carbon footprint. We are already achieving good results in dairy in particular but I think we can do better. We are already also doing reasonably well in how we produce beef in terms of the carbon intensity of the production systems, which are, by and large, intensive grazing-based systems, but we can do much better in that area too. We are spending €300 million of taxpayers' money on a beef genomics scheme to improve the genetic integrity of our herd, ensure that our beef animals become more efficient, that we can slaughter them earlier and make sure that they are emitting less methane in their life cycle. That is the reason we have asked all exporting food producers in this country to sign up to the Origin Green programme, so that this journey is a transparent one in terms of how and where they source water and the carbon footprint of the production system as a whole as well as the carbon footprint of farming on beef farms in which Ireland is a global leader.

I accept the food industry has a responsibility, as do farmers, in terms of the climate change challenge. We will potentially need to look at radical solutions in how we farm, how we produce food and also our lifestyles. If Deputy Eamon Ryan wants to talk about that, he should do so accurately in terms of what we are doing and achieving as a significant food exporter in the European Union and as a country that is determined to show the way by means of the beef and dairy product that will be demanded in the future, regardless of changing patterns. If Ireland through its technology and production systems can show others how to produce food in a much more carbon-efficient way then surely we should be seeking to make that global contribution, rather than shrinking our food industry and farms.

I have been absolutely accurate about what is happening. We have been working on this in real detail in the various committees of this House. We heard an impressive presentation from Macra na Feirme. The witnesses said we are on target to meet the plan for an 85% increase in exports, primarily in dairy and beef. Its presentation was very impressive. It is not all bad in Irish farming. There is a lot of good farming going on. What those young people said yesterday is true: the young farmers of the future will be green. They will be the young environmentalists of this country. However, we also know as a fact that despite all the good things such as the beef genomics programme and the various methods that are used, Teagasc and the Tánaiste's former Department, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, are projecting that we will increase our agricultural emissions. The Tánaiste cannot use the line that we are the most efficient and the best and sell hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fake baby milk powder to China and pretend that we are solving the global problems. If we are serious about the sustainable development goals and climate emissions, we will have to do more than we are currently doing.

Let us bring it back home: I accept we are a big food exporter but we are also a significant food importer. I would like to give Irish farming a chance and a fair deal so that we are not buying a kilo of carrots in the local supermarket for 49 cent, which is one of the things that needs to change to allow us to diversify. We could grow a range of different crops and start paying farmers properly. That could be one of the changes. We could also improve the health of the population and improve the country and its landscape and be part of the change. That is the type of change we need. On the one hand we cannot significantly increase our exports of dairy and beef and on the other do what the The Lancet and other scientists say we need to do. We need to change.

I agree with much of what Deputy Eamon Ryan says. We do need to change and I contend that we are changing. We probably need to accelerate the change in many areas. We have, for example, put a lot more money into organics, which by the way is probably less carbon efficient in many ways but it needs to be an important part of our food mix. We have many more indigenous Irish food companies now providing innovative products into local supermarkets than perhaps we have ever had before. We are living in, operating in and building an industry in a Single Market across the European Union so there are things we need to do collectively as a European Union to protect the share of the consumer price that primary producers get. We also need to continue to drive efficiency as well as encourage a change in lifestyle in terms of diet, how we travel, where people live and how they work and in so many other areas that are in some ways part of the 2040 plan and in other ways part of the Food Wise 2025 plan. I am not suggesting that we somehow absolve agriculture from its responsibility in terms of climate change.

I thank the Tánaiste. The time is up.

Nobody in government is advocating that approach. What we are saying is that we need a vibrant industry that keeps families employed in rural communities in Ireland at the same time as doing something significant from a climate change and emissions management perspective through agriculture, which is what the Food Wise 2025 plan is trying to do.