The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has questioned why the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has launched a "deep dive" into agricultural emissions data.

The CSO today (Tuesday, February 25) launched a new "agri-environment indicator resource" which it said provides "essential tools for understanding the dynamic relationship between agriculture and the environment".

These indicators measure the environmental impact of agricultural activities and highlight how ecosystems positively contribute to agricultural production and society.

The CSO said this "one-stop-shop" allows easy access to a comprehensive list of indicators across various themes monitored and reported by the CSO in one central space, which include:

Agricultural land use;
Biodiversity, ecosystem services and condition;
Climate and environmental impact;
Economic and social development;
Resource efficiency and management of natural resources;
Soil health;
Water quality.

The president of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, said that farmers will be “fascinated” by the CSO announcement.

He said that he looked forward to hearing about a similar "deep dive" into the data around those other sectors identified as requiring action on environmental grounds, such as urban waste water treatment, data centres, and the impact of the Dublin Airport passenger cap.

He said that the ICMSA is "just a little perplexed by the idea that the CSO is singling out farming and agri yet again for special attention under a variety of headings".

"We feel compelled to ask where the announcement of a transport indicator resource is given that the government’s own figures have agri emissions falling last year by around 4.5% , while transport emissions not alone did not fall, but actually increased," he said.

The ICMSA president said there was a "nagging suspicion based on bitter experience” that, despite the government’s repeated assurances, some sectors – and specifically farming - would be saddled with a disproportionate share of the burden when it comes to reducing emissions.

Drennan said that it was difficult to imagine a more "vital national interest" than producing the food that powered a €16 billion export-orientated sector.

He claimed that the CSO announcement "reinforced farmer suspicions that data was constantly being assembled to use in prescriptive regulatory way against them and the wider agri-sector while other sectors were allowed mark their own homework".

“ICMSA has always said that farming will play our part. But equally we have always said – and I’ll repeat it again – that we absolutely will not allow a situation where farmers or the farming sector is asked to carry other sectors’ burdens through to the new lower-emissions society and economy.

"If there is a deep dive into agriculture, the same should apply to other sectors and the government has to understand that we will not allow ourselves to be anyone’s ‘whipping boy’ here," Drennan said.