Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

326. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41983/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Farm Plan Scheme, administered by my Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service, is an important instrument that allows for proactive engagement with farmers in designated sites, to trial and deliver bespoke measures that support biodiversity. Plans delivered through the Scheme have been used to inform the development of national Agri-Environment Schemes under the Rural Development Programme, co-financed under the Common Agricultural Policy.

The NPWS Farm Plan Scheme has been enlarged this year to work with farmers and to apply and test new and innovative approaches for farmland biodiversity. I would hope to continue that process of enhancement next year, budgetary considerations permitting.

My Department meets regularly with the farmers' organisations and I am fully aware that they wish to see an expansion of the NPWS Farm Plan Scheme. The matter is receiving close attention and is being advanced in the normal Estimates process and considered in the context of existing commitments, the overall resources available to the Government and the demands on those resources.