Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food
Social Farming: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Brian Smyth:
On collaborations, we work with the LCDCs. There are a number of funded programmes for placements through the LCDCs. There is the disability integration fund, which was supported by former Minister of State, Senator Rabbitte, along with a wide variety of others. There is national lottery funding, for instance. A number of our farmers are members of public participation networks, PPNs. Mr. Matthew McGreehan is on the LCDC in Louth and I am a member of the secretariat to the PPN in Leitrim, so we are connected. I was at the Rural Pact conference in Belgium in September to speak about inclusion in rural development in Ireland through social farming. We are very tied in with influencing policy change to support people, particularly people with disabilities and those in mental health services, to recover. We have a policy officer providing evidence, and there are reports on the website on the experience. The evidence base is being built in Ireland for this now.
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