Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 October 2025
756. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on his Department’s identification of funding mechanisms that would support emissions reductions from land use, as committed to in the Climate Action Plan 2025 and due in Q3 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55519/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, land use in Ireland is complex and multifaceted. The Land use, Land use change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector faces extremely difficult challenges in reducing emissions due to the biogenic nature of land use, historic land use, cultural and societal issues and uncertainty as our scientific understanding of emissions and activity levels for this sector advances.
My Department has invested heavily in recent years in research and projects, with the objective to reduce the uncertainty in the land use emission factors and sequestration. These include, but are not limited to, the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory (NASCO), the National Soil Monitoring Program, the Signpost Farms, the Repeat Peat soil mapping project and the Teagasc led D-TECT project, which is investigating the drainage status of peat soils.
Peatlands cover 21% of our land area, and 64% of our total soil organic carbon stock. They are the largest store of carbon in the Irish landscape. However, this carbon store is very vulnerable. To address this, my Department funded two locally led European Innovation Partnership (EIP) projects operating in the midlands, FarmPeat & FarmCarbon, exploring the potential for reduced management intensity of farmed peatlands. This has fed into the development of the results based scorecards in ACRES, with over 650,000 hectares of upland area scored to date.
Launched in 2023, the Forestry Programme (2023-2027) proactively assists and supports the planting of trees and forests in Ireland. The overall funding of €1.3 billion represents the largest ever investment by an Irish Government in tree planting. An expanded and sustained afforestation programme will improve the sink capacity of the national forest estate and contribute to LULUCF targets. Additionally, my Department secured a 5.7% increase in funding for the forestry sector in budget 2026.
