Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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One of our Statement of Strategy objectives within DAFM is to promote measures to support farmers viability and resilience.

Under Goal 3, the statement commits to developing a policy framework to improve viability and resilience, within the Agricultural Sector, with the aim of putting climate adaptation at the centre of resilience planning. Climate adaptation was considered and included as part of the CAP strategic Plan 2023-2027 and the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The maintenance of permanent pasture and protection of peatlands and wetlands encourages the sequestration of carbon and promotes the protection of carbon sinks. The maintenance of good soils, including through crop rotation and management of grassland, make our soils more resilient to climate changes including for example high rainfall. Improving soil structure and quality through appropriate soil management strategies and the previously mentioned crop rotation can reduce dependence on synthetic fertilisers thus lowering any subsequent N2O losses, while low input and extensive grassland actions also improve soil structure and increase its capacity to reduce flooding. The retention of landscape features such as hedgerows and land drains, can have climate adaptation benefits, in particular towards the management of flood events while maintenance of hedgerows also has the potential to sequester carbon, these will also provide shelter and shade during heatwaves thus avoiding heat stress. The protein aid scheme improves resilience to global climate change by increasing protein crop production in Ireland and reduces potential losses during importation and drought conditions south/north America.

My Department has made funding available for Climate Adaptation focused research to improve our understanding of the interaction on climate change and agricultural systems.

Furthermore, my Department also convenes an internal Adaptation Steering Group to consider measures necessary to adapt to the changing climate and extreme weather events to ensure a resilient Agricultural industry and to ensure adaptation is considered as part of all agricultural policy.

The current Sectoral Adaptation Plan (SAP) for Agriculture, Seafood and Forestry was published in 2019, reviewed in 2022. A new Sectoral Adaptation plan will be drafted nest year, after the National Adaptation Framework is published.