Mr. Bill Callanan:

The reality of the agriculture policy is around increasing value add rather than volume. As has been indicated, the overall national herd is smaller than it was even in 2021. It is pretty static since 2018. However, it is down from 2021. Bovine total numbers were 7.3 million in 2021. Today, they are 6.8 million. It is down. The overall national dairy herd has been pretty static. The suckler herd has fallen. The message from the Department of agriculture has to be that it is all about value add as opposed to maximising the market return in terms of dairy that is produced here rather than a volume expansion.

On payments for eco-schemes and eco-services as a means of support for delivering on biodiversity, there has been a huge shift. Under the current CAP, 25% of all basic payments are now eco-scheme payments. That is in relation to space for nature. On about 85% or 90% of all farms, that is the option they have selected. The payment is for hedges and ponds, etc. that are on farms. That constitutes 25% of the total payments. I will describe what the agri-environment scheme has become. The rural environment protection scheme was broad as a scheme. Various iterations have become more informed in terms of what we are trying to do and where in particular. It is about the right action in the right location. We are using data from the NPWS and the EPA etc., to better inform the structure and objectives of our agri-environment scheme. We have to remember that we have 55,000 of our 130,000 farmers in an agri-environment scheme. We have about 1 million ha of high nature value farming land in this country. There is a significant investment in biodiversity, water and climate through the strategic CAP, but also through national funding for the delivery on these objectives.