Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 2 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Photo of Brian LeddinBrian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the Minister about two issues that are not directly under his brief but that he might have some interest and influence in. We spoke earlier about solar farming and an issue has been raised, which I am not sure has come across the Minister's desk, where farmers get a 90% relief on inheriting the land but they forfeit that relief if they use more than 50% of their land for solar farms. We are told that the effects of that regulation are that a swathe of landholdings throughout the country have been taken out of potential use for solar farming. We have raised this at the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, but this seems like it is a significant block to development and the diversification we are trying to explore for farmers. If they are forfeiting 90% relief, they will not even entertain the suggestion when a developer comes along and asks if they are willing to work with it to develop a solar farm. Perhaps this is something the Minister can consider and take to his colleagues at Cabinet level.

The second matter is the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, which is more of a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. It has been on the Statute Book since the 1940s and, as I understand it, the legislation was enacted partially as a labour activation measure and partially to bring marginal land into agricultural production. It is a recommendation of this committee in a recent report that we published just before Christmas that the Act be reviewed because it does not quite fit with where we are trying to go with land use. I ask that the Minister and the Department consider the appropriateness of the Act in this challenge we have to change land use and provide opportunities for farmers across the country.

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