A joint call for the establishment of an energy commission to examine the use of farmland to meet Ireland's renewable energy commitments was made at the weekend by Irish Rural Link, the advocacy group for rural communities, and the Cori justice commission.
Both organisations are among the social partners currently engaged in negotiating a new national agreement, and they are urging the Government to include this proposal in a new agreement, especially in light of the closure of the Mallow sugar factory.
A statement from the groups at the weekend said that Ireland was facing the dual problems of dealing with a contracting agricultural industry in terms of direct farming and agricultural processing and compliance with a range of EU energy directives. This proposal is aimed at addressing both problems simultaneously.
The statement said that agriculture was changing fundamentally, with current forecasts claiming that agriculture will involve no more than 30,000 full-time farmers by 2025, and perhaps as few as 10,000, according to one report.
"As well as this, the end of beet production as a significant industry, which was one of the few farming enterprises that gave a decent return on investment, has now arrived," the statement said. "Rural communities are facing major challenges to their long- term sustainability, including energy needs. Irish people's quality of life is threatened and Ireland is far from fully utilising its ability to take advantage of the direction which EU policy is taking on the production of renewable energy," said Séamus Boland, director of Irish Rural Link.
"With the loss of the beet and sugar industry, it is urgent that we find alternative crops that will maintain a sustainable industry in rural areas while contributing to the production of alternative energy," he continued. "EU policy has set an objective that consumption of energy from renewable sources will be over 20 per cent by 2020, and at present Ireland consumes only 1.9 per cent. Despite this very low figure and the fact that time is quickly running out, we have a wonderful asset at our disposal that could begin to alleviate the effects of an energy crisis, namely land."
According to the director of the Cori justice commission, Father Seán Healy, an energy commission should focus on retrieval of energy from the land. It should also look at alternatives to oil, at crop and organic waste systems which enable the production of electricity and at the more efficient use of wind.
"The proposed energy commission would also go a long way towards addressing the issue of how to simultaneously halt the decline of farming in Ireland while significantly increasing the supply of renewable energy available to the community, industry and the consumer. It is imperative that this social partnership agreement begins to tackle the very serious issue of how we deal with the impending energy crisis which is being exacerbated by our dependence on fossil fuels," Father Healy said.