The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has claimed that aspects of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine's speech at Tullamore Show on emissions policy were "disingenuous".

As he opened the agricultural show in Co. Offaly yesterday (Sunday, August 14), Charlie McConalogue said that any measure or policy introduced by the government will not be forced upon farmers.

He said that a key priority of his in agreeing the agriculture sectoral emissions reduction target of 25% was ensuring all measures for farmers would be voluntary.

“Some sort of draconian forced-reduction of livestock numbers never entered the equation for me.

“But I think it’s fair to say that there will be changes to the methods of farming over the next decade, especially in the area of increased use of energy generation," the minister said.

However, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that the remarks were at "demonstrable variance with the reality of the imminent changes to nitrates regulations".

"We’re back here to the government’s delusion that it can introduce a whole series of compulsory measures against farming in general, and dairying in particular, but so long as they don’t have ‘emissions’ in the title, they can still argue that ‘nothing is forced upon farm families’ in terms of reducing emissions," he continued.

"And the net outcome is always restrictive of farming, and the proposal is always compulsory for farmers.

"I don’t know whether it’s deliberately disingenuous, but it’s certainly no way to introduce policy and long-term it is corrosive to a process that needs buy-in and a unified understanding of what it is that we are about”, said Mr McCormack.