Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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124. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the supports his Department is providing to help farmers meet national and EU climate targets, particularly regarding emissions reduction, biodiversity enhancement and sustainable land use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25747/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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What support is the Minister's Department providing to help farmers meet national and EU climate targets, especially in emissions reduction, biodiversity enhancement and sustainable land use? Will the Department focus in particular on nature-based solutions? I was very lucky to have worked on an integrated constructed wetland and I would love to hear the Department's opinion on the use of such wetlands as a tool not only to reduce our emissions but also to clean our water.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising a very important point. I am delighted to be able to put on the record that I am committed to the long-term viability of the Irish agriculture sector, as the Deputy would obviously expect me, as Minister for agriculture, to say. Included in that are farm families, who are the bedrock of the sector, the agrifood industry and the rural economy. The industry is hugely important in terms of economic activity and employment.

At the same time, Ireland's national and EU ambitions on climate, land use and biodiversity are challenging and will require the application of the best scientific and technological advancements available, coupled with engagement of all stakeholders, if we are to meet both national and international commitments. I reassure the Deputy that this sector is up to the challenge, supported by the Government. It is something I am focusing on and will continue to focus on through collaboration and engagement with all involved.

The EPA published the Ireland's Final Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2023 report in April of this year, which sets out that total greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector in Ireland in 2023 were 20.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. This represents a year-on-year decrease on 2022 of 4.9% of greenhouse gas emissions from the sector. While this decrease represents notable progress, it is important we continue to support Irish farmers and maintain this positive trajectory towards meeting our targets.

Pathways to enable the sector to meet its 2030 climate ambitions in the agriculture and land use sectors are set out in the Climate Action Plan, which is now reviewed and updated annually in accordance with the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy strategic plan is supporting farmers to transition to more sustainable practices while also supporting family farm incomes, with a budget of €9.8 billion. As part of Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy strategic plan, my Department is providing €1.5 billion for the agri-environmental scheme ACRES, increased funding for organic farming, which has increased the area farmed organically in Ireland to 248,000 ha, and €260 million to improve the carbon efficiency of the suckler herd through genetic improvement.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I am delighted to hear that the Minister is committed to our climate targets. I know he might be surprised to hear a north Dublin TD who cares about agriculture, but it is something I have studied in college. He has just mentioned the sustainability aspect. To what extent are the CAP payments now tied to the measurable climate targets and how is the Department ensuring these conditions drive genuine change?

Integrated constructed wetlands, ICWs, are brilliant, especially for farm runoff, using a piggery or any alternative to a wastewater treatment plant. They are really low cost and they filter hydrogen and phosphorous naturally. Not only that, a tiered system of integrated constructed wetlands also adds biodiversity to an area and creates a wetland, which is also a natural hold for carbon. I urge the Minister's Department to look into these as an effective, cost-effective and necessary way to solve this.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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We have so many supports available for our farmers, who are up for this challenge, as I said earlier. I am accompanied by the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, who has a budget of €1.3 billion underpinning the forestry programme 2023-2027, which is the means by which we are implementing the forestry strategy and supporting farmers and the industry to reduce emissions through carbon capture, which Deputy Heneghan outlined in many different ways. It is really important. My Department supports a range of other climate change mitigation activities, including improvement in bovine genetics, which has a massive potential in terms of the scalability and the cumulative benefit year on year, investments in solar panels on farms, support for multi-species swards, and many other measures.

I have always said farmers cannot go green environmentally if they are in the red financially, but the truth is that the smart business play, not just the right thing to do by our environment, for our farmers is adopting more of these sustainability measures, once we make sure that sustainability stool is equally divided between the economic, the environmental and the societal. We are definitely making great strides in that space and farmers are doing their bit.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I am delighted to hear that, and I thank the Minister for the engagement today. I wish him the best of luck. He has a great brief, and Ireland will definitely be defined and our Government will be defined by how we act in the next four or five years in this regard. I urge the Department to look at integrated constructed wetlands as a cost-effective solution. They store carbon, they boost biodiversity, this week being biodiversity week, they are cost-effective and they have been done very successfully in Sweden and Denmark. The ICW in Grange Castle West is being used as a water runoff treatment, but I was out there recently and it is great to see the native animals now using it as their home. It is great to see a solution to wastewater then benefiting nature. It is killing two birds with one stone, or rather the surviving of two birds with one stone.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I take that on board. What we have always said is that property rights are enshrined in the Constitution and farmers, as owners of the land, have rights there. Where they are supported to do so and the income is there for them to support their farming activity, they have proven themselves to be very adaptable. Farming is changing. Farming changes. It is very different today from what it was a generation ago, when my parents farmed, and it will be again when my children are farming. It will be a very different scenario and we are adopting all those sustainability credentials, taking on all the opportunities that provides. As I said, I have seen it from the trade perspective. Our pasture-based system here is unique and is a unique selling point for us. As regards the sustainability credentials of what we are doing, farmers can do more than one thing at the one time. We are producing top-quality food that is a very important source of income for them, our country and our rural economy. At the same time, we will be reducing emissions three years in a row, we see an improvement in water quality and an improvement in biodiversity, and farmers continue to work in that regard because they can do more than one thing at the one time.