Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 March 2022
898. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will commission a socioeconomic impact assessment on the results of re-wetting 105,000 ha of farmed drained peat; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16599/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Climate Action Plan 2021 targets 80,000 hectares of grasslands on drained organic soils for reduced management intensity by 2030 as part of agriculture’s contribution to achieving national climate change targets.
The Department announced a call for a new locally led European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project on reduced management intensity of farmed peatlands in August 2020. Two groups, Nature Based Agri Solutions Limited and Green Restoration Ireland were successful in their applications and will receive over €2 million to complete their projects. These projects will, and have been providing lessons learned to scale up the actions and measures into a larger agri-environment scheme for the CAP Strategic Plan.
There are currently no plans to commission a specific socio-economic impact assessment for the re-wetting of farmed drained peat.
