Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy O'Shea and colleagues across the House for their support as we worked through the challenges on ACRES. I am committed to having permanent fixes in place so that we can get back to talking about the good things that ACRES is delivering for our environment. More than 54,000 farmers are delivering more than 9,000 km of watercourse protection through buffer strips on areas adjacent to rivers, streams, lakes and wetland riparian zones. More than 500,000 native trees and more than 2,300 km of new hedgerows have been planted. The scheme has seen 14,000 barn owl nest boxes installed and 57,000 hectares of grassland left undisturbed to support overwintering geese and swans. These are the types of measure that are having a real impact and 54,000 farmers put their hands up for that additional environmental conditionality, proving that they can continue to produce top-quality food and supplement their incomes by taking measures that have made a real difference to their areas. That is what I want us talking about and focusing on in ACRES from next year onwards.

Again, I thank the Deputy for his support in this area.

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