Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

Ongoing geopolitical tensions have meant that food security is increasingly at the forefront of the political agenda both at EU and global level. Ireland is among the most food secure countries in the world. As part of the EU Single Market and the Common Agricultural Policy, Ireland benefits from robust mechanisms that underpin food security across Europe.

There is a series of instruments embedded in the EU policy framework to ensure food security. Safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems, and EU publication, sets out actions in the areas of security, stability and sustainability. The EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council of Ministers, of which I am a member, will continue to focus on these core areas. This includes supporting the work of the European food security crisis preparedness and response mechanism, EFSCM, which monitors and responds to threats to EU food security and supply.

Ireland already has an integrated national framework for food systems sustainability. Food Vision 2030 was developed adopting a food systems approach with an ambition for Ireland to be a world leader in sustainable food systems and sets out four high-level interlinked missions for the sector to work towards. Each of these interlinked missions has ambitious goals rooted in a strongly practical approach to what needs to be achieved for future environmental, economic and social sustainability. To achieve these ambitions, we continue to support farmers through the €9.8 billion CAP strategic plan, which helps fund the transition to more sustainable practices while maintaining farm incomes. Environmental measures include the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, increased funding for organic farming and the suckler carbon efficiency programme, SCEP, which is helping farmers to improve carbon efficiency in livestock production.

My Department participated alongside other Departments in the food poverty working group and developed the 2024 action plan on food poverty, a cross-sectoral response to that issue. Ireland’s food security is underpinned by strong national and EU frameworks, continuous policy integration under Food Vision 2030 and targeted actions to strengthen local production, reduce food poverty and build a sustainable and resilient food system.

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