Sinn Féin TD defends party’s climate change stance amid ‘populist’ claims

Sinn Féin has denied suggestions that it lacks coherent climate change policies or is adopting populist stances on the issue.

The party’s climate change spokesman Darren O’Rourke said it supports the targets set out in the Government’s climate legislation — to cut emissions by half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050 — but insisted Sinn Féin differed on how it should be done.

This week Sinn Féin withdrew a private members’ Bill that would have severely limited the development of the onshore wind industry in Ireland. It also opposes the carbon tax.

Prominent party figures including leader Mary Lou McDonald and agriculture spokesman Matt Carthy have said they oppose a reduction in the suckler herd, and it has given no commitment on reductions to the dairy herd.

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When asked during a media interview on Wednesday Sinn Féin was adopting populist positions without suggesting any substantive policy alternatives of its own, Mr O’Rourke argued that the Government needed to engage more with the communities and sectors most affected by climate change.

“We supported and were constructive in opposition in terms or what needs to be done,” he said. “The difference is the road that we need to travel to take us there. And fundamentally our concern is the approach that has been taken by the Government is punitive on the people who are the most vulnerable , who are on the front line in relation to this. There is not proper engagement.”

‘Trajectory to failure’

He said his honest argument was to have more engagement “by including those stakeholders and map out a plan that support them.

“We are on a trajectory to failure in relation to this,” he said. “(For some people) the transition means the difference between a diesel Land Rover and a Tesla X. For some other people it means not having a job in the morning and not being able to heat the house in the morning.”

Mr O’Rourke said people were up for the challenge of climate change but they needed to be incentivised.

Asked what its alternative policies were to reach the targets in sectors such as agriculture, Mr Carthy claimed that the Irish suckler herd was one of the most sustainable in the world.

“It makes no sense if you continue to eat meat that you would reduce the Irish suckler herd and replace it with a factory controlled feed for food, whether that is coming from Ireland or being imported from Brazil.”

For that reason, he said, Ireland should argue for rejection of the Mercosur Trade deal with South America.

Analysis needed

Asked would he reduce the size of the Irish dairy herd, Mr Carthy said it has been Government policy over the past decade to increase it, which was something that needed to be analysed. He added that agriculture was the only sector which was profitable.

“So the answer to all of this is not the stick. It’s the carrot,” he said. “It’s by creating new opportunities for farmers to diversify so that they can remain on their land and one of the key areas of that has to be the growth of the organic sector.”

He said the Irish target of achieving 7 per cent organic produce was much too low when compared to the EU target of 25 per cent.

“You create alternatives for farmers to enter. If there are no profitable alternatives it will be very difficult,” he said.

Mr O’Rourke did not agree with the suggestion that the time for consultation was over. He said the Government had committed €200 million to insulation of homes when billions were needed. He accepted there was a “reality check in this for all of us” in terms of meeting the targets.