Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said a lot of politicians are not honest with the public about climate issues because they are afraid of losing votes.
Ms Cairns criticised opposition parties for not having a clear position on the nitrates derogation for Ireland and took aim at the Government for not preparing for the exemption being removed entirely.
The Cork South-West TD, who grew up on a small farm, also said she finds the approach to communicating with farmers “ridiculous and a little bit insulting”.
Asked why she thinks political parties might not be clear about the scale of change needed, Ms Cairns told the PA news agency: “I think (they’re) scared of losing the farming vote, and seeing everything in terms of election cycles.”
On comments Ms Cairns made previously about how climate change policies are what separates parties on the left, she said that for the Social Democrats “it’s a massive priority”.
“We’re willing to say the things that a lot of politicians aren’t in relation to climate because like that, it’s this short termism, the thinking that ‘we better not say that’,” she said.
“For example, one of the votes people use all the time is the farming vote, and that debate in particular is something that I find very frustrating.
“I grew up on a small farm in West Cork, a small dairy farm. Lots of my friends, my neighbours are farming, and the presumption that we somehow don’t understand the science, care about the future of the sector for future generations and all that stuff, I just find for one ridiculous, and for two a little bit insulting.
“It’s this attitude that ‘Oh, to keep the farming vote, you kind of have to plamas them and tell them these things that aren’t reality’.”
Ms Cairns used the example of Ireland getting an exemption to use more organic nitrates per hectare than other EU countries for what she said was political dishonesty on farming.
Farmers in Ireland had an allowance of 250kg of nitrogen per hectare (N/ha), but this is reduced to 220kg N/ha from this month onwards, in an attempt to improve Ireland’s water quality.
Most other countries’ limit is 170kg.
“Like this whole debate with the nitrates derogation, since I got elected I’ve been saying to the Government, why are you continuing to extend the nitrates derogation when you’re walking farmers to a cliff edge, and eventually it’s going to have to go.
“We all know that, the farming community know that better than anyone.
“Why aren’t you starting to put measures in place to support people in the change to make it fair and reasonable? Instead, no, deny that it has to happen, deny that it’s going to happen, try and fudge the science around emissions and then boom, there we are. The derogation is introduced, farmers are at a cliff edge.
“I just think that doesn’t do anyone any favours.
“So our position on climate is that it’s not a ‘will we, won’t we’ and the fact that we’re having that discussion is actually pretty detrimental. We need to make these decisions, but the sooner we make them and do them in a way that’s fair, the better it will be.
“I can understand why people feel like a lot of the time the changes are just foisted upon people without engagement without any planning because that is exactly what happens.
“So we don’t see it as a ‘will we, won’t we’, we see it as a must and how do we do it the right way, and I think it’s just unbelievable that isn’t the approach of every government at this point.
“Around the time (of the nitrates debate), there was no clear position from any of the other opposition parties on the derogation except ‘Oh, we think we should keep it but we also think that we should protect water quality’.
“That’s not a realistic position, that’s just speaking out of both sides of your mouth. So I think that’s the main difference.”
