Coveney accused of misleading public over dairy expansion

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has been accused of misleading the public on the environmental impact of expanding Ireland's dairy herd.

An Taisce said claims by Mr Coveney that the Irish dairy herd can be expanded by over 300,000 cows in the next five years while maintaining the existing carbon footprint of the agriculture sector were inaccurate and misleading.

The heritage group said a major increase in herd size “by any objective measure” would sharply increase dairy emissions.

“No amount of creative accounting involving complex carbon footprint calculations and lobbied-for EU special exemptions will alter these basic facts.”

On RTE's PrimeTime programme earlier this week, Mr Coveney said the national dairy herd would increase by between 20-25 per cent over the next five years.

He said that the increase could occur without commensurate increases in emissions from the agriculture sector.

This is, according to An Taisce’s climate change committee, completely without foundation in fact.

“The minister’s claims about higher yields per animal magically causing such dramatic lowering of the carbon footprint per litre of milk as to offset the addition of almost a third of a million dairy cows to the national herd are manifestly false”.

Despite Mr Coveney's claims about improved emissions efficiency in Ireland's dairy sector, data from the Environment Protection Agency shows that methane emissions Irish dairy cows actually increased, from 101kg per head per annum in 1990 to almost 113kg per head in 2012.

An Taisce said methane is a potent greenhouse gas, some 24 times more powerful as a heat-trapping gas per molecule than carbon dioxide.

According to the EPA report, the “increase of 10.6 per cent from 1990 (is) in line with increased milk yield”.

“This flatly contradicts Minister Coveney’s claim that higher yielding animals are going to somehow deliver drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to offset the huge herd expansion,” the group said.

An Taisce said that as recently as April this year, the then environment minister and now EU agriculture commissioner, Phil Hogan warned that agriculture must become carbon neutral to fulfil its climate change obligations.

"Minister Coveneny has also glossed over the inevitable increase in nitrates usage (Ireland is already failing to implement the EU Nitrates Directive, aimed at protecting freshwater from nitrate pollution)."

The group claimed that an extra 300,000 dairy cows meant a commensurate rise in agricultural effluent, which when combined with more frequent flooding events, places Irish water courses at heightened risk.