Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's points and questions, I reassure the House that farmers are, with the help of the State, on a journey to improve our biodiversity and ensure the food we produce is produced more sustainably into the future while continuing to produce the top-quality, safe and nutritious food that is trusted across the world. It is intrinsic to our economic prosperity, with exports worth €16 billion. Food Vision 2030, our ten-year strategy, looks to grow that to €21 billion to ensure the rural towns and villages that depend on the economic trade of our farmers continue to be vibrant and alive into the future. The State works with farmers in that regard and our commitment has been proven by the oversubscription and ambition of farmers for schemes. Some 46,000 applied to join the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which is beyond the 30,000 we had places for. We moved might and main to facilitate all the farmers who showed that level of ambition to get them all into the scheme. We will continue to work with them to improve those conditions into the future.

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