Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2019
500. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which measures are in place to meet climate change requirements without damaging the economy in general and the food industry in particular; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42243/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is actively engaged as part of the whole-of-Government approach to transitioning to a low-carbon, competitive, sustainable and climate resilient economy and society.
The All-of-Government Climate Action Plan to Tackle Climate Disruption sets a series of step-up measures and underpinning actions and proposed targets for all sectors including the agriculture, forestry and land use sector. To achieve these challenging and ambitious targets will require immediate action through early adoption and high levels of take-up of the identified actions across our 139,000 plus family farms. I see three important actions that can be advanced immediately.
- Deepening engagement with farmers and other stakeholders along the food supply chain to promote the necessary deployment of new technologies and changes in farming practices;
- Improving nitrogen use efficiency such as widespread adoption of low emissions slurry spreading or introduction of clover in grassland swards; and
- Continuing our support for research and innovation such as animal breeding, improved grassland and fertiliser management and examining the potential of novel feed additives in grass-based production systems.
In addition, Food Wise 2025, the latest ten year strategy for the agri-food sector published in July 2015 identifies the opportunities and challenges facing the sector and provides an enabling strategy that will allow the sector to grow and prosper. Food Wise includes more than 400 specific recommendations, spread across the cross-cutting themes of sustainability, innovation, human capital, market development and competitiveness; as well as specific sectoral recommendations.
If these recommendations are implemented, the expert committee, which drew up the Food Wise 2025 Strategy, believes that the growth projections are achievable by 2025. With regard to employment, Food Wise foresees the creation of 23,000 additional jobs in the agri-food sector all along the supply chain from primary production to high value added product development.
Preparations have begun within my Department on developing the next 10 year strategy to replace Food Wise 2025. It is envisaged that this will be published in 2020. Without pre-empting the content of the next plan, it is clear that the broad, cross-cutting themes contained in Food Wise will continue to remain highly relevant. Clearly, there are broader policy developments that will have a strong impact on the development of the strategy, particularly CAP reform, climate action and Brexit.
