Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Mark Christal:

The best example, which we referenced in our statement, is the capital investment scheme. As Mr. O'Flynn said a second ago, we have approved 34 projects as part of the capital investment scheme and it will be €100 million worth of approvals. That was really around the investment by companies in new processing equipment, such as blast freezing capability for example. That was designed so that instead of taking fresh product you are taking frozen product. What that is doing is potentially opening up new markets. In assessing the applications that came in under that scheme we worked jointly with Bord Bia to see if there was a market for the company, what investment is needed in terms of the capital equipment to enable that market to be realised and obviously then taking account of the potential climate or sustainability criteria as well.