Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
945. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to clarify the process around setting actions to receive funding for ‘contributing to climate neutrality’ under Ireland’s EMFAF National Programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36986/23]
View answerThe EMFAF regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/1139) identifies broad categories of interventions which reflect the extent to which such support makes a contribution to environmental and climate objectives. The purposes of these types of interventions, and associated climate and environmental coefficients identified in the regulation, is to provide information on the support from EMFAF for these objectives.
The Programme as a whole and actions within it were developed through a process involving both public and stakeholder consultations and with regard to relevant policy and regulations. As actions were developed as part of the overall EMFAF programme development, the most relevant type of intervention was identified in the regulation and applied to the indicative budget associated with these actions. The third type of intervention, specified in the regulation, was “Contributing to climate neutrality”. This was applicable to actions identified under two specific objectives including Specific Objective 1.2 (Increasing energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions through the replacement or modernisation of engines of fishing vessels) and Specific Objective 1.6 (Contributing to the protection and restoration of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems).
These along with the other types of interventions will allow for a high level assessment of the performance of the Programme on contributing to the improvement of the environment and climate goals.
