Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan and I take his points on board. We have limited capacity to grow our own and more growing of our own is something that the Department has tried to support in the past year, as we cannot grow GM food in Ireland. In this regard the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, recently announced a second tillage incentive scheme which has as its focus the purpose of increasing the amount of grain and forage that will be essentially home-grown, as in grown here in Ireland with the aim of converting grassland to tillage use. It is widely acknowledged that the first tillage incentive scheme contributed approximately a 6% increase in tillage area or an additional 20,000 ha in 2022. In addition to this the protein aid scheme which is a payment to farmers for growing other protein crops such as beans, peas and lupins also works to increase domestic production of protein crops. These crops, which are also nitrogen fixing, provide important environmental benefits as a co-benefit. We need to grow more of our own and we are aspiring to do so.