Dr. James Moran:

The Deputy asked about the biggest challenge for farming at the moment. The biggest challenge when it comes to agriculture and land use in Ireland at this time is policy coherence.

We have conflicting demands on our land. It has to produce the food we need, secure clean water, mitigate and adapt to climate change and provide space for nature. In Ireland, over 70% of our land is managed by farmers so a lot of that challenge, when we do not have policy coherence, comes down on the backs of individual farms and communities and they are feeling that pressure at the moment. This comes back to the question of targets as well. We have to be clear on the targets.

With respect to water and climate in our biodiversity action plan, at European and Irish level we are very good at setting targets and goals. They are clear and these are the goals we have to make. On the pristine waters, the 500 courses have to be back in good ecological condition according to what we have signed up to in the water framework directive. The trouble is when you translate this broader European and Irish framework into action at the level of individual communities and farms, the messages that are coming down to the farmers are mixed messages each time. Then farmers and communities on the ground are wondering what exactly we need from them.

This comes back to the payments. Farmers mostly get their money from the Common Agricultural Policy at the moment, so there must clear, consistent messaging about what they are getting the public money for in terms of what they are delivering. The other side is producing the food. We need to get clear markets signals and farmers being paid for quality. This comes back to the design of the whole food system. As to how we pay farmers, we have to pay them through the markets for quality products they are producing to serve both Irish needs and the global market needs. There are a lot of issues around the market and about the unfair issues in the supply chain that are beyond the remit of this, but if we are going to address the food system, it impacts on that as well. Going back then, we pay farmers through the market for their product, but we also want farmers to produce the water and the spaces for nature and to mitigate climate change and adapt to it.

There also has to be a value placed on that in society and, as working businesses, farmers have to be able to see a return from that. Something we have done quite well at pilot level and at small scale in Ireland is develop these models for payments for ecosystem services. There is the Burren approach and we have done it for peatlands as well in the FarmPEAT project in the midlands. We are seen as European leaders on that, but the trouble is how to scale that to national level. We are scaling that at the moment through the ACRES co-operation project and we are having significant challenges from an implementation perspective with administration and IT systems to support that, but we have made a huge leap to pay 20,000 farmers within this hybrid, results-based, locally adapted payment model. We have to really resource that, ensure it works effectively and, within five years, make it available to all 134,000 farmers so they then have a system whereby they can get money for their food and their environmental service provision. Therefore, we can actually do this.

There are recommendations in the agriculture section to support national frameworks into local actions, put the systems in place for payment for ecosystem services, build on the models and systems we have out there and scale them. However, what this needs above all, and going back to the targets, is coherent policy. We need a vision for what we want our land use to look like in 2050. It is not just about a bit of a goal here for water and a goal here for climate. They all have to add up. We have to be able to paint a picture for an individual farm in Meath, Cork, Dublin, Mayo and Donegal so farmers can see what their farm will look like in 2050 if they follow what is needed.