Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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82. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current rate of take-up of new farm methods which he regards as key to the Government climate ambitions and the step up needed by 2030 to meet the targets. [8346/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has identified a number of actions in the Climate Action Plan (CAP) that will play a key role in the achievement of Ireland’s climate targets. Evidence of these actions is already being reflected in the most recent EPA Inventory reports, where Agriculture reduced emissions in 2022 by 1.2% compared to 2021.

The Programme for Government set an ambitious target for the Organic sector, to triple the organic land area to 336,000 hectares by 2027. The CAP has an additional target of 10% of the land area by 2030. This ambition was matched by a significant increase in funding and the launching of a new Organic scheme which has now achieved 180,000 hectares of organic land or 4% of the national land area.

Another area of focus is the reduction in the use of and reliance on chemical Nitrogen fertilizers. A 14% decrease in chemical Nitrogen use saw the use of chemical Nitrogen fall to approximately 343,000 tonnes in 2022. Fertiliser sales in 2023 were 280,569 tonnes, indicating a further 18% reduction which has put us below the Climate Action Plan target for 300,000 for 2030. We achieved this through the significant funding I put in place over the past number of years to allow farmers improve Nitrogen use efficiency.

Funding for Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) has reduced the reliance on chemical Nitrogen and allowed farmers to maximise slurry use on farm, this has also helped significantly reduce Ammonia emissions. Data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey shows that 75% of average dairy farms and 25% of average cattle farms spread slurry via LESS, respectively.

Under the Nitrates Directive there is also a requirement to increase the proportion of clover in the sward, which will further reduce the dependence on chemical fertilizers. The use of protected urea products will also play a significant role in achieving the climate targets. In 2023 almost half of the urea sales were made up of protected urea, compared to just 5% in 2018.

Lastly, complementary actions under the CAP Strategic Plan have seen 3,000 hectares of multispecies sward sown in 2023, which has the dual benefit of mitigation of emissions by reducing the requirement of chemical fertilizers and the adaptive benefit of greater resilience to drought conditions.

There are many other environmental actions available to farmers under the CAP Strategic Plan, including agricultural practices in our new Eco-scheme, our €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme ACRES, €260m for improvement of the genetic merit of the suckler herd and a five fold increase in funding for organic farming.