Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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99. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the specific climate action measures implemented under mission 1 of Food Vision 2030 to date; if he will outline the key performance indicators being used to track progress toward the 2030 targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36635/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Food Vision 2030 is Ireland’s stakeholder-led agri-food strategy, developed for the sector by the sector, with a vision for Ireland as a “World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems”. Working together, all the stakeholders have committed to transform our agriculture, food, forestry, and marine sectors to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability. Food Vision was designed using a food systems approach, recognising the requirement to have greater policy coherence across agriculture, food, and the environment.

Food Vision 2030 has four high-level Missions, including “A Climate Smart, Environmentally Sustainable Agri-Food Sector”, which aims for a climate-neutral food system by 2050, with measurable progress by 2030. This includes emissions reductions, carbon sequestration, improvements in air quality, restoration and enhancement of biodiversity, improvements in water quality, development of diverse forests, enhanced seafood sustainability, exploring the bioeconomy and strengthening the Origin Green programme.

I recently chaired the 14th meeting of a High-Level Implementation Committee, established to monitor delivery. In terms of progress on this Mission, 50 actions (82%) are either complete or have substantial action undertaken and a further 11 actions (18%) have commenced and are progressing. The third Food Vision Annual Report will be published shortly, with the 2 previous annual reports published on my Department’s website.

A new Food Vision 2030 Dashboard has also been developed to monitor progress against a number of key performance indicators and is publicly available on my Department’s website. The key performance indicators included on the dashboard that are being used to track progress under Mission 1 include biogenic methane level, ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions, water quality, air quality, afforestation levels, level of organic farming, food waste statistics and the Origin Green programme. A biodiversity indicator is currently under development. In addition, a large number of key indicators identified by the Food Vision Environmental Working Sub-Group and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) are also included on the Food Vision Dashboard.

Key achievements to date under this Mission include the National Biomethane Strategy, the Farming for Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP), Ireland’s Forest Strategy 2023 – 2030, the National Bioeconomy Action Plan, the National Fertiliser Database, AgNav, the National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap, the 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan, the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and the flagship environmental scheme, ACRES.

We will continue to work with all the stakeholders to achieve our Food Vision 2030 goals.