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 Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct to say the diversification options include organics. She will, like me, have seen that the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has done strong work in this regard. There has been a change in the interest levels among farmers, with farmers now seeing organics as a viable option and we are putting in the funding to back that. It is an important aspect and we are seeing it change quickly and grow.

Anaerobic digestion is also one of our key diversification options and we will have the strategy on that by quarter 3 of this year. We are also growing the area under tillage and last year, we made progress on tillage domestically, by 7%, which we want to try to continue, although challenges are emerging this year. We will have to look at how we manage them, given we want to grow our tillage again and carry out a lot more of it.

Moreover, forestry has significant potential. In that regard, we want to encourage a lot of people to do a small bit and incorporate forestry into as many farms as we can, which is why the premiums and the strategy we have put in place are very much focused on family farms, giving farmers 20 years of premiums as opposed to 15 years. Everybody had 15 years previously, but we have extended that for farmers to 20 years, with strong premiums in place for that. We are encouraging farmers, they have an acre or a hectare available on their farm, to incorporate that and in order that we can have that spread in different parts of the country, providing a significant diversification option.

There is potential also for solar, in respect of which there is a key focus at the moment on rooftops and at a commercial level.

As for ACRES not being a box-ticking exercise, there has been a complete reorientation of most schemes with the CAP, particularly with regard to ACRES, to being results based. It is no longer about doing the actions, given the learning was that completing the actions does not necessarily mean the result will be achieved. Rather, the focus has to be on the outcome because that is what counts.

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