Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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164. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the measures that he is putting in place to ensure that the agricultural sector meets its sectoral targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61373/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the agriculture sector was assigned a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 based on a 2018 baseline of 23MT CO2 eq.

This reduction in emissions will contribute to the economy wide reduction of 51% by 2030. It is a challenging and ambitious target but is one that farmers and the industry are committed to achieving. it is a challenging target but one that I am confident we can achieve by working together. 

Earlier this year, I established two Food Vision groups - a dairy group and a beef group. The final reports of both groups are currently being considered, however, it is clear that the measures contained within both reports will form the basis of the agricultural mitigation measures of the Climate Action Plan 2023, when it is published next week. 

The challenge now is to have these measures taken up at farm level, this process is well under way. The Teagasc Climate Action Strategy was recently launched with a strong focus on benchmarking farm emissions and expanding the Signpost programme. Teagasc will continue to be supported by DAFM in the rollout of these programmes. 

More specifically from a DAFM perspective, significant financial aid will be put in place to support farmers in their transition. The new €1.3 billion forestry programme was recently launched, with attractive payment rates available. Commitment of €1.5 billion has been agreed for the new agri-environmental scheme called 'ACRES'.

In relation to organic farming, we have delivered a 500% increase in the budget for the scheme over the lifetime of the next CAP, which starts in 2023. Other targeted measures include financial support to establish red clover and multispecies swards to assist in reducing chemical nitrogen demand. 

Farmers and the agri-sector are leading out on their climate targets. Both I as Minister, and the Government as a whole will continue to back and support them in the period ahead.