Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am fully committed to the promotion and retention of the family farm model in Ireland. It is something unique and valuable. It is the heartbeat of our rural economy and the promotion of the family farm has been at centre of all my major initiatives as Minister, including almost €10 billion of investment on Irish farms under the CAP strategic plan. Implementation of this plan is now central to all of my Department's work and I believe that farmers need policy certainty now and the space to get on with their actions under their various schemes between now and the end of 2027.

Central to the development of our agrifood sector is Food Vision 2030, to which all the key stakeholders across the agrifood sector contributed and with which all the key stakeholders agree. Food Vision 2030 called for an ambitious blueprint for the sector for the years ahead supporting family farms and employment in rural Ireland and adding value sustainably into the future.

In late 2019, a committee with 32 members representative of the sector and independently chaired was established to put the 2030 strategy. The committee held 13 meetings. Following the publication of a draft strategy and associated environmental assessments for public consultation, a final strategy was agreed in July 2023. I was delighted to launch Food Vision 2030, which has been welcomed broadly across the farming sector as the way forward and a vision to which all the sector is committed with the family farm very much at the centre of it.

I have examined the Commission on the Future of the Family Farm Bill 2024 and note that the issues proposed for such a commission are the issues Food Vision 2030 has already considered. They include the economic and social future of family farms, promoting a greater understanding of food systems and ensuring farmers get fair play within the food supply chain. I know the Bill is on Second Stage and it is open to the Deputy to progress it and bring it before the Dáil but I am certainly working very collaboratively with everyone in the sector to plot an agreed way forward for the development of our agrifood sector and the protection of family farms.

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