Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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150. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of the funding provided by his Department to Teagasc for the acquisition of a series of flux towers; the purpose of these towers; the role of the towers in rewarding farmers for carbon sequestration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60837/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As part of the Department’s strategic investment in soil carbon research, funding of over €3.8m has been provided for the establishment of a ‘National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory’by supplying the scientific infrastructure to measure GHG fluxes from soils under agricultural management.

Through this investment, Teagasc, on behalf of the Department, has commenced intensive monitoring of carbon emissions and removals across a range of Irish soils, putting Ireland at the forefront internationally in terms of understanding, supporting and rewarding farmers for practices that build carbon stores in our soils.

How we manage the carbon locked up in our soils, and support farmers to implement practices that build carbon must be built on robust science. This investment will create a significant bank of knowledge and information that will allow us to target and reward actions that remove carbon and store it in our soils.

There is a need to improve the data in the National Inventory to accurately reflect the actual emissions and sequestration from grasslands in order to verify progress towards our targets. Further, there is a lack of data available for determining the change in soil carbon stocks in grasslands on organic and mineral soils in Ireland due to a lack of relevant research, data collection and monitoring infrastructure.

This proposal will help establish approximately 30 GHG “Flux Towers” across a range of soil types. The resulting “National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory” will place Ireland at the forefront of EU carbon sequestration research and will enable Ireland to:

- Better quantify soil carbon emissions and sinks from agricultural land.

- Enable mitigation measures to increase carbon sequestration to be included in the national inventory.

- Participate in the EU ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) network.

- Enable Ireland to benefit from the 2018 EU Effort Sharing Regulation.

Arming ourselves with crucial data is a key aspect of strategy to meet our climate ambitions and it is very important that we develop a greater understanding of the carbon in our soil.