Absolutely. The programme for Government highlights the importance of the wool sector and how we want to help develop further opportunities for wool and examine the possibility of a scouring plant. We do not have one in Ireland and that is an impediment to further development. I remember a time when the shearing of sheep and the collection of wool was a really valuable part of a sheep farmer's activity. That cheque was a very important part of that overall activity. Not only is wool categorised as waste but, in ter…

The call was launched on 5 November 2024 and 27 applicants were selected to submit a more detailed project proposal as part of the competition with this phase closing on 24 February. These have been submitted and will be evaluated in the month of April.

I am delighted to again have the opportunity to speak on GAEC 2, which was raised in the House earlier. As a reminder, GAEC 2 is a baseline requirement under the CAP regulations for the protection of carbon-rich soils. It is legally required to be put in place for 2025 as part of the conditionality requirements for the basic income support for sustainability, BISS, payment scheme. The proposal my Department has submitted to the European Commission for approval aims to strike a balance between the vital protection o…

I cannot do this in a minute. I will start by taking grave exception to the phrase used by Deputy Conway-Walsh. She stated that what is proposed will "severely disadvantage" farmers in Mayo or anywhere else in the context of GAEC 2. That is not the case. Day-to-day farming and agricultural activity will continue. On the basic point made by Deputy Connolly, and following on from Deputy Kenny's point about splitting parcels of land, I have dealt with the INHFA. It proposed alternative wording in a footnote. It asked …

I was not suggesting that.

No wonder farmers are concerned. Deputy Conway-Walsh can only raise those concerns and I can only answer back on numerous occasions in this House, in the media and , at farming organisations' public and private meetings to reassure farmers that this is not a designation. When words like "designation" are used and references to planning are used, as was used earlier, that sets farmers' fear off. The only people who will know a land parcel is GAEC 2 is the farmer and the Department of agriculture. A local planning au…

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this really important issue. Our livestock sector faces ever-increasing animal health threats. Diseases such as bluetongue threaten our cattle and sheep. I take the threat of bluetongue virus, BTV, very seriously. My Department carries out post-entry sampling of all ruminant animals and camelids from mainland Europe for BTV regardless of the bluetongue status of the country of origin. This mitigates the risk of the disease being inadvertently imported with live animals. The EU TR…

We have enhanced biosecurity measures at our ports for vehicles coming in. Ireland is currently BTV free. An outbreak of BTV in Ireland would have a significant impact on animal welfare, the Irish livestock sector and trade. It is important to state that Bluetongue does not impact human health or food safety. However, the bluetongue virus serotype 3, BTV-3, has spread widely across northern and western Europe in 2024, while serotype 12, BTV-12, has also been detected in the Netherlands and eastern England. BTV-3 va…

On the last point, as I outlined, there is no vaccine for BTV-12 but there is one for BTV-3 and that remains under consideration. On the Deputy's main point, the answer is that we are doing everything we can to try to keep this out. Obviously, we are not importing risk animals from risk areas. There is a risk, at the height of the season in high summer, of midges travelling over themselves from England and that is something we cannot mitigate against. In terms of identifying if it is here, doing so early is really …

Deputy Aird and I attended the Irish Grain Growers AGM earlier this year, where we heard at first hand the challenges and opportunities for the tillage sector, which is an integral part of Irish farming and makes a significant contribution to overall agricultural output. The Government recognises the importance of the tillage sector and wants to grow the area under tillage crops in the years ahead. The report of the food vision tillage group, which was published in May last year, sets out a roadmap for sustainable …

I will go down to visit the flour mill and Deputy Byrne can get me a couple of boxes of Wexford wine while we are there.

At the Mallow festival, I was presented with Wexford wine and it was very impressive. I am delighted to see that market go from strength to strength. The programme for Government includes support for the development of knock-on industries from the tillage sector. That value-added factor is important, in addition to the basic fundamental of the sector that Deputy Aird articulated so well. It is estimated that the tillage sector contributed €1.9 billion per annum to the Irish economy in the period from 2018 to 2022. …

I could not agree more. I have said previously in the House that I see agriculture as a gearbox within which all the different enterprises, including tillage, dairy, beef, sheep and pigs, are interlinked and interdependent. Should one sector of that gearbox stop working, it impacts on everything else. Tillage is a key component of that. The sector has been through a tough time. To be a tillage farmer involves a massive outlay on machinery costs. There are big overheads and margins have been extremely tight. We want…

When I came into this role ten weeks ago, I looked at the situation with ACRES. It is unacceptable that 2,800 of the farmers who signed up to a contract back in 2023 have still not had their applications processed and that there are problems with the system. In 2024, there were 14,500 farmers who had not had their advance payments issued. That was unacceptable. I worked with the officials to look at the challenges in the system around the very complex nature of processing these new applications and getting the new …

There is no doubt that, when a new agri-environmental scheme commences at the start of a CAP process, it brings a lot of teething problems. I remember that GLAS in 2015 struggled in that first year. It is a big undertaking. We had a number of different measures coming together at this one time. Let me be clear. While I am pointing to the momentum I have managed to build in this process in the ten weeks I have been in my role, I will not rest until every farmer is sorted. I want to see that happen. We are on track t…

The Deputy is articulating the frustration that is felt by many farmers across the country. The points he raised are not ones I am hearing for the first time. We will have the Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2026, and in my determination as Minister, right at the time of the AGRIFISH Council when the other 26 ministers for agriculture are all looking to agree the new CAP, Ireland will have significant influence in those negotiations. At the heart of the new CAP that I want to see developed is simplificat…

As I rise to my feet to express confidence in the Ceann Comhairle, I reflect on 106 years of Dáil Eireann, during that time from its first sitting on 21 January 1919, with the revolutionary Irish Republic being formed with some of its Members still in prison, to 9 March 1932 when we had that first changeover of power between two parties, when reportedly some Members of this House carried weapons into the Dáil Chamber only for W. T. Cosgrave to intervene and ensure a peaceful passing over of power. This House has se…

I am happy to answer this question. This structural change is very much seen by Coillte as bringing the whole area of biodiversity and its importance into the heart of the Coillte organisation and it is not in any way a diminution of the importance of the work that Coillte Nature did previously. It is just a structural change within that organisation, and the key focus and importance of that within the Coillte organisation.

In February, yes. It is very much still a focus. I can reassure the Deputy of that.

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his role in this Seanad term ahead. It is a great honour for me to be here as Minister for agriculture addressing the Seanad in what is a very important debate. I thank Members for putting this on the agenda and giving us the opportunity to have this debate on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. We are currently about halfway through the implementation of the CAP strategic plan for the period of 2023 to 2027. I will open today's statement with a brief overview of the progress to…