Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and accept the sincerity of the case he is making in respect of the climate action plan and the need to reduce emission ceilings. I think the Deputy agrees there is an overall need to create emission ceilings and to reduce emissions in all sectors of the economy, including agriculture. It is important the Irish Government supports the Irish agricultural industry. We also need balance in the debate and should consider words such as "devastating", "catastrophic" and so on. The dairy industry has grown exponentially over the past decade or so. It has been going extremely well since the removal of the milk quota. This year will be significant for the dairy side of the industry, given the global situation. That is the reality of where we are coming from. That is the base.

We are providing substantial funding. We recently announced a new and pioneering €1.5 billion agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, that will pay farmers up to €10,500 per farm, on average. There is funding for biodiversity, for example, and the introduction of results-based actions and the proposed ACRES will allow for qualitative payments for biodiversity, which is anticipated to reward high-quality habitats and support the delivery of improved outcomes from lower-quality habitats over time. The scheme will address water quality. There are farm sustainability planning processes. ACRES will target action in various areas, such as riparian margins, unharvested cereal margins, planting new hedgerows and trees, results-based low-input grassland, extensively grazed pasture and environmental management of arable fallow. It will also touch on climate measures around water quality and reducing chemical nitrogen usage. Actions to be taken through ACRES will include catch crops, low-input peat grassland and the planting of trees. All of that will make a significant contribution to the achievement of the agricultural measures under the land use change and forestry chapter of the climate action plan. A lot is being done and much investment is going into agriculture to assist the industry.

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Cahill, who has said we should have a specific technology fund to help agriculture, and farmers in particular, to adapt to new technologies that would also help in the reduction of emissions. That has to be worked out a bit more but it is an interesting idea that the Deputy has championed.

Deputy Healy-Rae is correct that there is work under way in respect of emission ceilings. In the coming weeks, sectoral emission ceilings will be established for the agricultural sector and all sectors, and that will give clarity to the sector. I understand where agricultural interests want the baseline to be and what level they want it set at. The Government's objective remains that, whatever the ceiling, it will allow for the sector to maintain food production in our beef, dairy, sheep and pig sectors.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, has been very consistent in this regard. I think the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has approached this in a very balanced, effective way in terms of marrying the challenge of food security in the world with doing it as efficiently as we can from a carbon emissions perspective.

See this speech in context