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

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As he will know, the new ACRES is worth about €1.5 billion over five years, the largest ever and 50% higher than the amount for the previous scheme. The riparian scheme remains 2 ha for €3,000. That has not been cut or changed. It is important that clarity is out there.

I have just confirmed with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine that there is no change to that. It is a scheme that we want to see rolled out as quickly as possible. As the Deputy knows, about €1.5 billion has been retained from carbon tax revenues to fund and contribute to this ambitious agri-environmental scheme. We anticipate 50,000 participants, with a maximum payment of up to €10,500 for individual farmers. Under the next CAP programme, which starts in 2023, some €723 million of carbon tax funding has already been allocated to support sustainable farming practices through a flagship agri-environmental climate measure and there is a variety of other supports there.

We want to make the scheme as workable as possible but if there are issues with the roll-out of the scheme that Deputy Fitzmaurice feels need modification to make it more workable, I have no doubt that the Minister and the team in the Department will be more than willing to engage and respond. This is a very important scheme in the context of the overall agenda ahead. If we are to maintain food security and sustainable food production and meet our climate obligations, we need workable solutions. Farming is interested in workable solutions. We need to plant many more trees than we are currently planting. There are issues that we have to address in terms of the land use change and forestry chapter of the climate action plan. We want to create funding streams for farming and agriculture and to have sustainable food production.

Overall, I hear what the Deputy is saying but I want to assure him that we are up for making this as workable as possible. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is engaging in a process with the dairy sector under the chairmanship of Professor Gerry Boyle, the former director of Teagasc, and also involving Professor Thia Hennessy in University College Cork, to make sure we can have a workable model here.

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