There absolutely is. I continue to work with the Minister for enterprise, Deputy Peter Burke, and all colleagues across the Government. On enterprise, there is considerable pressure on our whiskey distilling sector because 40% of the whiskey we export goes to the US. Changes such as those to tariffs have a direct impact on industries. I am working with the Minister, Deputy Burke, on his plans to develop an action plan on competitiveness and to help us to control the things we control. We always consider market dive…

As Minister for agriculture, I have a close working relationship with the food industry and businesses. When people think agriculture, they think farmers. That is only right since there are 120,000 Irish farmers who produce that top-quality food. We also have 170,000 people, or close to it, employed in this sector, however, and many of those high-quality jobs are in food processing and in those companies the Deputy mentioned. They all feed into the value of our exports, which last year alone were worth €19.2 billio…

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important point. I am delighted to be able to put on the record that I am committed to the long-term viability of the Irish agriculture sector, as the Deputy would obviously expect me, as Minister for agriculture, to say. Included in that are farm families, who are the bedrock of the sector, the agrifood industry and the rural economy. The industry is hugely important in terms of economic activity and employment. At the same time, Ireland's national and EU ambitions on climate,…

We have so many supports available for our farmers, who are up for this challenge, as I said earlier. I am accompanied by the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, who has a budget of €1.3 billion underpinning the forestry programme 2023-2027, which is the means by which we are implementing the forestry strategy and supporting farmers and the industry to reduce emissions through carbon capture, which Deputy Heneghan outlined, in many different ways. It is really important. My Department supports a range of other cli…

I take that on board. What we have always said is that property rights are enshrined in the Constitution and farmers, as owners of the land, have rights there. Where they are supported to do so and the income is there for them to support their farming activity, they have proven themselves to be very adaptable. Farming is changing. Farming changes. It is very different today from what it was a generation ago, when my parents farmed, and it will be again when my children are farming. It will be a very different scena…

I thank Deputy Burke for raising this very important issue. I know it is a cause of great concern. Even if I had not been engaging with farm organisations since I got this role on the area of TB and if I had not been pointing to the fact I need a new approach to the TB programme, which I would like to do through consensus, there is that concern with farmers already. The concern at the rise in the incidence of TB is palpable among farmers. Those who have it on their farms are very stressed and want a clear pathway o…

There absolutely is. There is also the emotional impact and trauma, which I would not underestimate. I remember when we had a reactor at home on the farm in Kildare in the 1990s when I was still in school and the devastation of seeing that cow and that reactor go. It stayed with me for a long time afterwards. I want to do two things. I want to provide a clear pathway to those directly impacted by this disease where they can see light at the end of the tunnel. Many say to me they do not have that sense; there is a s…

I agree. The Deputy spoke about the investment from my Department. It will take increased investment in the short term to try to get on top of this issue. I am willing to do that in order to prioritise. There are three key drivers of the infection: the role of wildlife, cattle-to-cattle transmission and the residual element left in herds that had a significant breakdown. My five-point plan includes supporting herds free of bovine TB to remain free; reducing the impact of wildlife on the spread of bovine TB; detecti…

As the Deputy will be aware, ACRES is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme. Payments in respect of farmers' participation in the ACRES scheme continue to issue on a weekly basis as cases pass all validation checks. Last week, I announced that balancing payments in respect of the 2024 scheme year have commenced with more than €33 million issuing to 42,444 participants. A total of €490 mi…

When I assumed this role, it was not acceptable to me to meet so many farmers where in many instances, the fault was with the Department. In some instances, it was with themselves for various reasons but in the majority of cases, it has been on our side. I have visited Johnstown Castle and have engaged directly with the officials. I have directed additional resources into the units. I have got down into the detail of the different cohorts and how they are affected. One reason it takes time to fix this is that I am …

I am grateful to the Whip's office for making time in the Dáil schedule to discuss what is a really important topic, namely Ireland's national plan under the CAP. The CAP is one of the EU's longest-standing policies, firmly embedded in the Treaty of the European Union. The agrifood sector remains one of our most important indigenous industries, employing 169,000 people and supporting €19 billion worth of exports. Experiences over the past few years, from the Covid pandemic to the war in Ukraine and the current glob…

I thank Senator Cosgrove for raising a really important issue and giving me the opportunity to put on the record of the House a reassurance to farmers in her area and all over the country who are concerned about GAEC 2. The Senator has outlined those concerns, and I know from my colleagues here in Donegal and Kerry as well that those concerns are shared by farmers. Much of this is down to the fact that there has been stuff talked about that has nothing to do with GAEC 2, which is a baseline conditionality for this.…

Apologies. I did not answer two of the Senator's earlier questions. One was on appeals and the other was on splitting the parcel. Farmers can split the parcel if there is a natural boundary like a wall or hedge in an existing land parcel. They can just do that on the application. There will be an appeals mechanism. Most farmers will not need to appeal this. It will not change their day-to-day activity. I can understand why there is confusion. I can understand how scarred and concerned people are around nature resto…

I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to provide an update on an important issue. The Deputy is right; there is a lot of concern among farmers around GAEC 2. I am happy to have the opportunity to reassure people that the concerns that are there are misplaced for a variety of reasons. I can give the background to GAEC 2. It is a mandatory condition for the payment of BISS. That is a single farm payment where the application deadline is this week, as the Deputy outlined. EU regulations require all member states to h…

I thank the Deputy for raising these points. On providing more time, the deadline for BISS applications is clearly 15 May. If I were to push that deadline back or try to extend it in any way, it would have a knock-on impact on the whole system of getting payments in place. We had delays in payments previously and are back on track in terms of making sure we can get the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme, BISS and single farm payments out on time and early, as we traditionally did. I do not want to interfere w…

No, the patch where they are cutting turf would never qualify for BISS anyway. The farmers will not be applying-----

That is no problem.

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I recognise how important the dairy industry is to west Cork and to the wider rural community. As Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I am committed to doing everything in my power to develop the sectors for which I am responsible and to communicate a fresh understanding of what it is. Our farmers, fishers, foresters and the food industry contribute to society and the economy as a whole. In 2024, much of the country moved to the lower maximum derogati…

I thank the Senator for raising a vital issue. It is important it be discussed in the Seanad today. I accept his invitation to west Cork. I look forward to going down and meeting many of those farmers with him and seeing the great work happening in that space. This is all about trends and all about the science backing up our argument. We know the economic argument for this. I am clear that farmers can do more than one thing at a time. This is not a binary choice between defending farmers' incomes, minding a derogat…

I start my first Oral Questions as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine by wishing Deputy O'Donoghue well in his role as agriculture spokesperson for Labour and Deputy Kenny as agriculture spokesperson for Sinn Féin. Deputy Mac Lochlainn, who has left because he has an engagement, and the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, will work on all things to do with fisheries. We look forward to having a constructive relationship, with them holding us to account and us doing our best. We will debate the issues that matt…