Agriculture

Brian Keegan: Concerns of farmers serve as a magnifying glass on politics

The resolution of the agriculture emissions problem requires it to be seen for what it is: a problem of oversupply of a by-product

Climate change is not a little thing, but it should not trigger a crisis within government over carbon emissions targets in the farming sector. Picture: Getty

The vote of no confidence put down by Sinn Féin in the Dáil last month was a failure. Not only that, it seemed to galvanise the government parties while rallying some of the independents in the Dáil, whether they belonged to the government parties’ gene pool or not. Thus stabilised, government ministers should have gone on their summer holidays feeling reasonably secure, until the dispute over carbon emissions targets came to prominence.

Climate change is ...