Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to appear before the Seanad to present the annual transition statement for the agriculture, forest and land-use sector. As one of the key sectors involved in the country's national mitigation plan, it only right to restate the vision for the sector which is an approach to carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry, that does not compromise capacity for sustainable food production. This is consistent with the principles of both the Paris Agreement and the European Union Council conclusions of October 2014, which recognised the role of agriculture and land use in tackling climate change and their contribution to achieving climate ambitions.

One of the first actions we committed to in the national mitigation plan was to engage with research to further elaborate on the concept of carbon neutrality.We expect that project to commence shortly. In the meantime we are continuing to take a three-strand approach to emissions reduction by reducing emissions where we can, increasing carbon sequestration and displacing fossil fuel and energy-intensive materials with renewable sources. The sector has been engaging in many positive environmental actions but I will focus on some of the actions we have been taking since I presented last year's transition statement.

In the context of the rural development plan, we continue to invest in our mitigation measures. Approximately 49,000 farmers are active in the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, and almost 25,000 farmers are participating in the beef data and genomics programme, with over 1 million animals genotyped to date. Building on the success of the latter programme, we will introduce a new pilot scheme in 2019 targeted at suckler farmers, namely the beef environmental efficiency pilot, BEEP. This new scheme will aim to further improve the carbon efficiency of beef production.

Given the importance of afforestation to the achievement of our sequestration ambitions, one of the new mitigation measures we have identified and introduced this year is a knowledge transfer group scheme for forestry. Other forestry measures taken this year include increasing the rate of financial support across all categories, with larger increases for broadleaf planting. A change in supports for road building was also made. We have also seen the introduction of the woodland environmental fund which will help to further expand Ireland's native woodland resource.

On the energy efficiency side, farmers are availing of investment options such as biomass boilers and air source heat pumps under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, II, pig and poultry and young farmers capital investment schemes. This year also saw the launch of a new collaborative initiative between Government and industry, the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme. The Department, Bord Bia, and Teagasc are working together to progress further positive changes at farm level through research, advisory services and carbon audits.

My Department is also busy preparing its first statutory adaptation plan for the three areas identified in the national adaptation framework for which my Department has responsibility, namely, seafood, agriculture and forestry.. We published an adaptation planning document for the agriculture and forest sectors last year and advanced work on the seafood element which will set the groundwork for future adaptation planning.

Increased environmental ambition is a key element of the new CAP proposals and I see this as an opportunity. However, having a well-funded CAP is more important than ever if we want to see this ambition become a reality. Our farmers are custodians of the land and supporting them in good environmental practices and enabling them to respond to climate challenges and opportunities is not only an investment in our agriculture sector but also in our wider rural communities.