Schemes which will pay farmers to reduce or get rid of cows from their herds will need to be “very attractive” to encourage farmers to switch enterprises, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Speaking on Wednesday evening at the launch of the Climate Action Plan for 2023, he said that there will be “no coercion or compulsion” to get farmers to take up the measures set out in the plan.

“To be very clear, there isn’t going to be any coercion here. The Government isn’t going to be culling any cows, nor is the Government going to confiscate anyone’s car or curtail car ownership.

“When it comes to diversification, it’s about putting in place incentives. We have to put in place, I believe sometime next year and negotiate this with the farmer groups, a very attractive incentivisation plan encouraging farmers to diversify into organic, into solar, into anaerobic digestion, into forestry, into tillage, into other areas of agriculture, but only if they want to.

“And that is something that needs to be discussed and negotiated with the farm organisations,” he said in response to a question from the Irish Farmers Journal.

The Taoiseach said farmers are up to the challenge of meeting the targets in the Climate Action Plan “provided we give them a clear direction, good advice and adequate financial incentives”.

“Sustainable, efficient, Irish food production is essential in the future and the world is going to need more food, not less,” he said.

He added that the plan shows that the Government wants more organic farming and more land under tillage.

“Farmers can play their part by embracing these new opportunities, we’ll make it worthwhile,” he said.

Not a cull

Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said that the Food Vision reports on the beef and dairy sectors have recognised that there is a real role for incentivisation schemes that will get people to switch to another enterprise.

“If you characterise that as a cull, I don’t agree. We do have to make sure in the schemes that there isn’t leakage - that you incentivise the switch to tillage [from dairy], for example, and then see dairy just resurfacing or coming back in another area.

“We do have to make sure that we get the emissions reductions from such schemes. But I agree with what the industry sectors were saying, that those incentivisation schemes are needed and they have to be delivered to meet that 1.3m tonne reduction [in carbon emissions] that is set out for diversification in [the] plan. We need those schemes, they will be funded and they will be additional and new, and they will be critical to make the whole plan work.”

Minister Ryan said that switching enterprises will not be forced on farmers.

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