Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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398. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allowing exceptions for rare breed farmers to the proposed suckler carbon efficiency programme due to the inherent difficulty of these breeds achieving the proposed targets. [62971/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme is a voluntary scheme under the CAP Strategic Programme (CSP). Farmers who choose to participate in the scheme must comply with all four mandatory actions/requirements within the scheme, which contribute to the overall payment the farmer receives in each year of the multi-annual scheme.

It is however acknowledged that in the context of the sire and dam requirements there is a challenge associated with developing Eurostar indices for breeds which are low in numbers. Thus I am considering some flexibility for the four Irish Rare beef breeds listed within ACRES regarding the sire and dam requirements to facilitate their participation in the programme. Details of the terms and conditions of the scheme will be made available in due course.