Martin Heydon

To finish the point I was making on the sectoral adaption plan, as well as priority actions in areas such as advisory and technical capacity, sustainable land and water management, we also have forestry resilience, species diversification, improved management and early warning for pests and fire. We are the fourth largest spending Department on research and much of that research is focused on the …

It is great to see such collegiality among the Louth Deputies.

I thank Deputy McGreehan for raising an important point on the role carbon sequestration can play in agriculture and the opportunities there are in this space. I acknowledge the Deputy is wearing a St. Brigid's cross. Both Louth and Kildare are very proud of Brigid. We are looking forward to the public holiday this weekend in her honour. Innovative technologies to improve our measurement of carbo…

We continue to monitor the latest technology and the opportunities and the amount of work under way in this area is significant. The National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory is part of my Department's strategic investment in soil carbon research. Funding was supplied to the establishment of the observatory by supplying the scientific infrastructure to measure GHG fluxes from soils under agric…

As we head into the weekend of Imbolc and the start of spring, St. Brigid taught us many great things. She might have been connected with the birch but in Kildare she gave us our county name - Cill Dara being "the church of the oak" - where she built her first male and female monastery. She was ahead of her time. As the patron saint of milkmaids and brewers, she had a huge connection to all things…

I thank the Deputy. We will not let St. Brigid completely dominate today but while the people of Louth are proud that she was born in Faughart, I note she moved to Kildare pretty quickly and spent most of her life there. You cannot choose where you are born but you choose where you live. The targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS 3, which is EU cofunded, provides grants to farmers to bui…

I will make a last reference to St. Brigid. I was jesting earlier. Kildare and Louth will both enjoy our public holiday next week, the third since it was established. I fought hard in government for the public holiday for St. Brigid. It makes great sense in many ways. With Councillor John Reilly and the community in Faughart and the broader area, we all share in the legacy of Brigid. There is a ph…

Maybe it is down to lack of representation. I do not know.

Absolutely. This is all about balance and giving farmers opportunities to offset costs. It is open to farmers, as landowners, to pursue opportunities to derive or manage income from renewables. That is where rooftop solar has been important. Under TAMS, it is only to offset high energy bills but if farmers put it on their rooftops through a normal system whereby they can sell it back to the grid a…

The control of all animal disease is an ongoing challenge for Irish farmers and my Department. I am acutely aware of the emotional and financial impacts that an outbreak of any disease can have on farmers and their families across rural Ireland. My Department provides a range of financial supports for farmers affected by certain animal disease outbreaks. Section 31(2) of the Animal Health and Welf…

I absolutely empathise and understand. I remember when we had a reactor at home in the 1990s. I was still at school at the time. The devastation and the impact of having a restricted herd and of the cow going off to the factory was devastating. Financially, it had a significant impact, but emotionally, even beyond that, it created huge turmoil. I would very much like to be able to not have any ca…

The Deputy will be aware that last week we received our HPAI disease-free status again because we have gone three months without an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza. I pay tribute to our poultry farmers, to private veterinary practitioners, to my staff in the regional veterinary offices and my chief veterinary officer and her team in my Department because this has been a huge effort. …

In 2019, the then Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment commissioned an independent economic and sustainability impact assessment, ESIA, which both my Department and Teagasc fed into. The ESIA, which was published in July 2021, estimated that beef imports from the Mercosur countries into the EU would increase by approximately 53,000 tonnes. The study noted that, assuming the additional im…

I remind the Deputy that the Government opposed the Mercosur trade deal, for very good reasons, which I have articulated. In line with our programme for Government commitment to work with like-minded countries that oppose the deal, I very much took a twin-track approach over the course of the last year. Every month that I attend the Agri-Fish Council in Brussels, trade is on the agenda. I have rai…

Irrespective of what way the Deputy tries to spin this, the record shows very clearly what way Ireland voted. If he talks to anybody in Europe who is in favour of the deal, they are very clear that the Irish Government opposed it. Irrespective of what he tries to tell people, the facts are the facts, and they are there. The Deputy can put down questions to the Minister for trade on all elements of…

In 2019, the then Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment commissioned an independent economic and sustainability impact assessment, ESIA, which both my Department and Teagasc fed into. As part of the ESIA, and specifically on the macroeconomic impacts of the agreement for Ireland, it was noted that shifts in employment across sectors were forecast to be marginal and to mirror changes in pr…

I have been very clear in my role since 23 January last year on every given occasion. Four days after I became the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I was in Brussels at my first Agri-Fish Council, and I put on the record my concerns and opposition to the Mercosur trade deal. I have worked very closely with individual like-minded countries to build a coalition and try to get a blockin…

I am sorry but I think the Deputy is mixing me up with the Minister for trade and that sector. The Deputy is welcome to put that question down. What I talk about is the role I have played. I have said very clearly on the record of the House, in response to the Deputy's first question, exactly what I have done over the last year and what I continue to do to advocate for our sector. I would pull the…

We voted against it.

I thank Deputy Ward for raising what is a very important issue. It is fair to say that sometimes we sit in here for oral questions on agriculture, food and the marine, and predominantly the questions are raised by rural-based Deputies but animal welfare is in everyone's interest. I have no doubt that Deputy Ward's constituents in Dublin and Dún Laoghaire are passionate about animal welfare. I am d…

The Deputy will be aware that I have just concluded a public consultation on my new animal welfare strategy for 2026 to 2030, which I will introduce this year. I thank everybody who made contributions on that. Animal welfare crosses so many different areas. The control of dogs legislation came back in under my Department since last summer with some significant work. I am really happy about that. A…

We are very much at one on this. This is something I want to work on with colleagues. This is something we discussed in the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party. It will also be debated and discussed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, and beyond the House, working with my colleagues at the Department of agriculture, the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley, Grealish and Healy-Rae. …

Soundbites.

I do not appreciate being misrepresented. During questions on agriculture earlier, a debate about farmers and agriculture went into the area of a trade deal and what trade policy was, and I highlighted that it was not my direct role.

I fought my sector's corner on the Mercosur trade deal. The Deputy knows what way the Government voted. I made that very clear. With regard to the point the Deputy raised around Bord Bia, what I implore everyone-----