Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

21. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which he remains satisfied that Irish farmers and the agrifood industry in general remain safeguarded into the future, notwithstanding competition, restrictions and-or requirements in regard to land rewetting, given the extent to which moisture abounds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55724/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I remain committed to the objective of Ireland being regarded internationally as a world leader in sustainable food systems, producing top quality, safe, nutritious, sustainable food.

With a growing global population, it is critically important that countries like Ireland that can produce quality agricultural products from beef, to cereals to dairy products sustainably continue to produce that food. That food production system must also strive to continually reduce emissions as Ireland is doing as it is an imperative that we retain our green credentials. This reputation has been hard won over many years, and I believe achieving our environmental goals is key to safeguarding our agri-food industry in the wake of increased competition.

Ireland's land is currently a net source of emissions. My priority is to ensure that we continue to make progress with respect to reducing emissions both from reducing the management intensity on our organic soils and through achieving our afforestation rates and promoting forest management initiatives.

The reduced management intensity of drained organic soils is an entirely new area of work with much uncertainty and complexity, which Ireland will need to pioneer an approach to. The uncertainty is caused by large data gaps regarding the location of organic soils, the nature of land management and intensity, the drainage location and status and the level of GHG emissions emitted from these soils in varying states of wetness and management.

I have targeted investment in projects to deal with this uncertainty, with the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory seeking to provide a more accurate picture of soil emissions and removals; the RePeat project to provide greater resolution peat soil maps; and two European Innovation Projects, FarmPeat and FarmCarbon, who are working with farmers at farm level to develop innovative solutions, with learnings already been brought across into the ACRES scheme.

Ireland cannot achieve climate neutrality without the land use sector supporting this objective over the decades ahead. Change is not easy and does not come overnight. Our recently launched country-wide network of Teagasc supported Signpost Farms will showcase how best practice management techniques can be adopted on a wide range of enterprises and soil types.