Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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59. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his Department’s projections for chemical nitrogen use in 2022 compared to 2021 and 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38242/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department collects data on fertiliser sales from manufacturers to retailers over the fertiliser year (October to September). The following table sets out chemical nitrogen fertiliser sales for quarters one and two of 2020, 2021 and 2022 for comparison purposes. Quarter three data for this year will not be available until August.

While sales figures for 2022 are not complete, a reduction in sales reflects the impact fertiliser price has had on sales together with other interventions that supported farmers reduce their dependence on chemical fertiliser.

The Teagasc 2022 Soils, Nutrients and Fertiliser Campaign which I launched in January provided a comprehensive information pack for farmers and their advisors on optimising the use of plant nutrients to address the challenge of maintaining their farm outputs in the face of rising fertiliser costs and reduced availability.

The factsheets prepared covered soil testing, lime application, nitrogen usage, organic manures, fertiliser spreading and many other topics that would have supported farmers to reduce their dependency on chemical fertilisers. It is a credible roadmap that is good the environemnt and good for the farmer's pocket.

Additionally, I introduced a Targeted Intervention Package worth over €12 million to support Irish farmers which identified three key pillars aimed at supporting Irish families arising both from events in Ukraine and wider global price volatility. The Package included a Multi-Species Sward Initiative and a Red Clover Silage Measure to promote environmentally sustainable methods of farming, thereby reducing nitrogen fertiliser usage, while maintaining forage yield.

My Department works closely with colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage regarding water quality, and in particular over recent months on the development of Ireland's 5th Nitrates Action Programme. As part of this Nitrates Action Programme, a 10% reduction in the maximum chemical nitrogen allowance for grassland has been applied with effect from March of this year. In addition, under the Programme, to reflect farming practice it is no longer possible to assign a chemical fertiliser allowance to commonage land.

All of these factors have contributed to a reduction in chemical nitrogen use to date in 2022 and it is expected that this reduction will be maintained through to the end of the fertiliser year in October.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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60. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that are planned to support farmers in meeting climate action sectoral targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38538/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, all sectors of the economy have been set with challenging targets in order to achieve the economy wide 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The agriculture sector will need to reduce emissions by between 22-30% by 2030, this will require transformational change across each one of our 140,000 family farms. I have been clear that a whole of sector, whole of government approach will be needed to achieve our objectives. Regulation, public supports and incentives, in conjunction with private industry supports will all an important role.

In terms of public supports, the CAP Strategic Plan which is currently going through the approval process in Brussels will undoubtedly be a key pillar of the State's climate action support The CAP Strategic Plan will provide €9.8bn of support the economic, environmental and social sustainability for farmers and rural communities.

Key elements of this plan include:

- a new Eco-scheme. This scheme has a number of climate- and environment-focused farming practices, which will be open to all farmers. These include practices aimed at reducing chemical nitrogen usage, increasing tree planting, increasing nature- and biodiversity-rich land areas and encouraging extensive livestock production;

- an ambitious new Pillar 2 environmental scheme, the AECM, targeted at 50,000 participants. This will be underpinned by a greater focus on results-based actions and on collective actions aimed at achieving landscape-scale benefits;

- an Organic Farming Scheme aimed at more than tripling the area of agricultural land that is farmed organically;

- A suckler carbon efficiency scheme which will contribute to the objective of early finishing times of our prime beef cattle.

- A revised TAMS scheme which provides more capital funding for on-farm investment than the preceding scheme and which will have increased incentives for environmental investments including renewable energy;

In addition, I established two Food Vision 2030 working groups on dairy on beef and sheepmeat which will set out a clear roadmap to enable the sectors reduce emissions. Any additional public supports required to assist with the transformation in agriculture will be set out in the final version of these documents which are expected to finalised this year. These will then be considered by Government.

My colleague Minister Hackett is also developing a new National Forestry Strategy and Forestry Programme which are currently the subject of detailed public consultation. Our aim is to have these concluded and in place for the start of 2023 with an increased set of incentives to attract farmers and landowners to consider planting trees which is a key part of our climate actions.

I will work with industry to ensure that their sustainability payment supports fully align with our public supports. By taking this coordinated approach, I am confident the sector will be able to achieve its climate objectives.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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61. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that he plans to introduce to support farmers in meeting climate action sectoral targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38540/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, all sectors of the economy have been set with challenging targets in order to achieve the economy wide 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The agriculture sector will need to reduce emissions by between 22% and 30% by 2030, this will require transformational change across each one of our 140,000 family farms. I have been clear that a whole-of-sector, whole-of-government approach will be needed to achieve our objectives. The target is challenging but I will support our farm families every step of this process.

In terms of public supports, the CAP Strategic Plan which is currently going through the approval process in Brussels will undoubtedly be a key pillar of the State's climate action support. The CAP Strategic Plan will provide €9.8bn of support the economic, environmental and social sustainability for farmers and rural communities.

Key elements of this plan include:

- a new Eco-scheme. This scheme has a number of climate- and environment-focused farming practices, which will be open to all farmers. These include practices aimed at reducing chemical nitrogen usage, increasing tree planting, increasing nature- and biodiversity-rich land areas and encouraging extensive livestock production;

- an ambitious new Pillar 2 environmental scheme, the AECM, targeted at 50,000 participants. This will be underpinned by a greater focus on results-based actionsand on collective actionsaimed at achieving landscape-scale benefits;

- an Organic Farming Scheme aimed at more than tripling the area of agricultural land that is farmed organically;

- A suckler carbon efficiency scheme which will contribute to the objective of early finishing times of our prime beef cattle. This scheme will reward suckler farmers with a payment of €150/cow on the first 10 cows which compares to €90/cow for the outgoing BDGP.

- A revised TAMS scheme which provides more capital funding for on-farm investment than the preceding scheme and which will have increased incentives for environmental investments including renewable energy;

In addition, I established two Food Vision 2030 working groups on dairy on beef and sheepmeat which will set out a clear roadmap to enable the sectors reduce emissions. Any additional public supports required to assist with the transformation in agriculture will be set out in the final version of these documents which are expected to finalised this year. These will then be considered by Government.

My colleague Minister of State Pippa Hackett is also developing a new National Forestry Strategy and Forestry Programme which are currently the subject of detailed public consultation. Our aim is to have these concluded and in place for the start of 2023 with an increased set of incentives to attract farmers and landowners to consider planting trees which is a key part of our climate actions.

I will work with industry to ensure that their sustainability payment supports fully align with our public supports. By taking this coordinated approach, I am confident the sector will be able to achieve its climate objectives.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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62. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the work that his Department has undertaken to support increased awareness of the importance of mental health among farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38244/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for this question on such an important topic.

This Government has prioritised farm safety, health and wellbeing. Dedicated funding of €2.25m was allocated in Budget 2022 for a range of initiatives including initiatives to support increased awareness of the importance of mental health among farmers.

My Department is co-funding, with the HSE and the Department of Health, a farmers physical and mental health awareness programme called, ‘On Feirm Ground’. This programme provides training for agricultural advisors to improve their understanding of best practice in engaging farmers with health programmes and services.

To date, over 200 agricultural advisors have been trained with a target to deliver the programme to 800 farm advisors by the middle of next year.

Last year, my Department funded eight farm safety European Innovation Partnerships (EIP’s) projects to the value of €1.8m. Of these eight projects, four are focused on mental health in the farming community.

The projects focus on addressing challenges around farm safety, health and well-being through innovative approaches which encourage a change in behaviour from the bottom up. My Department continues to monitor the progress of these projects and will study their outcome to inform future policy and initiatives in this area.

One such project is the EmbraceFARM ‘Encircle’ Programme which Minister Heydon Martin Heydon recently launched. The programme supports farm families in the aftermath of a sudden accident or trauma on the family farm.

My Department also supports the work of the HSA’s Farm Safety Partnership and was recently involved in the publication of its booklet on “Farmers’ Health and Wellbeing - A Guide to Staying Healthy While Farming”. The booklet, which includes a section on coping with stress and minding your mental health, was launched at the recent Teagasc Beef 2022.