Minister for the Environment John Gormley said today he was ‘very surprised’ to learn how Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith argued against reducing cattle numbers.
‘I’m near speechless,’ he raged, cracking a pencil in two and flinging it from his Custom House eyrie. ‘Smith knows about the Government’s sub-committee on climate change.'
According to Mr Gormley flatulent cattle account for 27% of all our greenhouse emissions, which Ireland has pledged to reduce by 30% by 2020. Green orthodoxy has it that unless the number of cattle in Ireland is drastically reduced, most of the profits from the beef industry will go towards offsetting carbon credits.
‘If we cut our cattle numbers, our beef would simply be replaced on world markets by beef produced in a much less sustainable way - actually making the global climate change situation worse,’ Mr Smith told Teagasc.
'Typical Fianna Fail stroke politics. I should have known,' Gormley screamed, before attempting a pun with the Fianna Fail leader's surname that was related to the topic.
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