Martin Heydon

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important point, and he is not the only Deputy here this evening to raise points about bovine TB. It is a really challenging disease to control and eradicate. In recent years, bovine TB levels have continued to deteriorate here in Ireland. Herd incidence has increased from 4.31% in 2022 to 6.04% in 2024, resulting in a 36% increase in the number of herds rest…

I reassure the Deputy that everything that is possible is being considered and everything has been looked at. I have started an engagement with the farm organisations and key stakeholders since I was appointed in January, and since the February meeting of the TB forum I have been back and forth with them looking to get their feedback and submissions, having proposals that have come back through my…

I absolutely want to do this in partnership. I know the stress and strain of this. It goes beyond the financial but the financial is really significant. I want to provide a clear pathway for those 6,000 herds, their farmers and their families that are restricted and that have reactors. I want to give them a clear pathway to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel and a way out of this. M…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a really important point around trade and trade promotion, which has become so pronounced in the lexicon of everybody and much more in the focus of everyone who pays even a cursory glance at what happens in agriculture. When other countries talk about tariffs and changes to our trade flow, it probably brings a focus in this country from people who do not alwa…

I thank the Deputy for raising those points. Trade and trade promotion has many different facets, as the Deputy outlined. In terms of the political meetings I had about trade when abroad, reassuring people about our quality assurance scheme, a nationally backed quality assurance scheme that has our farmers, our food companies all together pulling towards the one set of standards that are independe…

That front foot forward is exactly what I am doing in leading my Department. It is why I was in the US for a series of political meetings at Capitol Hill over a couple of days and meetings with other key clients and customers across the US. It is why I will travel to Asia next month. I continue to take those opportunities to tell the story of the innovation that Deputy Clendennen referenced in our…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, which I know is of concern to his constituents in Cavan-Monaghan. On 8 May, I held a TB summit with key stakeholders where discussions were held on the most effective ways to mitigate the impact of bovine TB on farm families and reduce herd incidence and spread of the disease. The backdrop to this meeting was the need to address the deterioratin…

The engagement I had on this and all other proposed actions with the stakeholders will feed into the draft proposals to help contribute to a more effective programme that protects farmers and their families from this disease impacting their herds. I will meet the farm organisations again later this week to discuss updated proposals on foot of our discussions. This has been a deliberative process s…

There are two key priorities for me. I know the emotional turmoil there is with having a reactor – the impact it has on families as well as the financial impact. The two clear priorities I have is to ensure that those farmers and farm families that are currently affected or will be affected in the future by a bovine TB breakdown have a clear pathway out of that and that we ensure that fewer are af…

I am delighted the Deputy raised the point regarding the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, particularly as it is such an important support for our farmers and farm families. It is grant aid to farmers to build or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings, many of which will assist in making farms more resilient in the face of storms. In acknowledgement …

We are using TAMS to be as agile as possible. TAMS has seen a highly significant increase in drawdown because farmers see the benefit of it. On that support, and there is also support under TAMS for solar panels, which has seen significant drawdown for those with high energy bills and the ability to do so, the agility of the system has been so important in allowing us to respond in real time to fa…

I assure the Deputy it has been looked at. It is a challenge and a source of great frustration for farmers that have not benefited. The farmers who have mainly benefited from solar panels on the roofs of sheds, and the TAMS support for it, have been those with high energy bills, especially dairy farmers when offsetting those dairy bills. Under state aid rules, using the TAMS mechanism whereby farm…

I am delighted to have the opportunity to do so. The CAP is absolutely critical. I wish the Deputy well in his role as chairperson of the joint Oireachtas committee on agriculture. I look forward to working with him and his colleagues in the term ahead. As Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I am working closely with EU institutions and my counterparts in other member states to influen…

In my engagement with Commissioner Hansen to date, I feel he is someone who gets it, both from his visit to Ireland in January and in his vision for agriculture in the different points he has outlined. He feels like somebody who understands the importance of the CAP for our farmers and food production system. The reason I clearly outlined my core priorities and those of Ireland regarding the CAP i…

There are two parts to this. The multi-annual financial framework, or the overall budget for Europe, will determine so much of the second part around the CAP. That is why the Heads of State and Government, including the Taoiseach, will have a key role to play in terms of engagement at this level and at the European Council. The Government has been very fair in articulating its priorities around pr…

I thank Deputy Neville and the other Deputies present for staying up this late at night to raise very important questions. We are on the night shift here. This matter is very important. There is concern among farmers over the impact of tariffs. It refocuses everyone’s mind. We are so busy day to day on our farms that we sometimes forget that we export 90% of the food and drink we produce. When ke…

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 …

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 in the country 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 …

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 i…

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, whi…

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 gene…

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 th…

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 …

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 include…

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 resp…