Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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766. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide details on the funding levels in Budget 2023 for organic schemes, including a comparison with funding for those or similar schemes in Budget 2022. [53270/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The current Programme for Government has set an ambitious target to achieve 7.5% of the utilisable agricultural area under organic production, which is also consistent with the target proposed by Food Vision 2030.

There has been a significant increase in the allocation for the Organic Farming Scheme in 2023. Under the new CAP, for the years 2023-2027, I have secured a budget of €256m for the organic sector with the aim of building upon this growth and developing the sector further.

This allocation will facilitate enhanced payment rates, including the introduction of a participation payment for farmers, to support the maintenance and conversion to Organic Farming.

The table below outlines the funding allocated to organic schemes in 2022 vs the indicative funding allocated in 2023. The definitive allocations will be set out in the 2023 Revised Estimates Volumewhich will be published later this year.

I have also secured an increase in the allocation for the development of the Organic Farming Sector in 2023. This funding has been allocated for the promotion and development of the Organic sector in Ireland in line with the anticipated growth in organic farming.

This allocation also includes a subvention payment to the Organic Control Bodies which partially covers the cost of carrying out the annual organic inspections, which is a key regulatory control to maintain the integrity of the organic system.