A €100,000 feasibility study on the wool market has been allocated in Budget 2021, Minister of State with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett has confirmed.
As well as an allocation of €5m for a farm biodiversity study, the Minister announced strong support for forestry with the allocation of over €100m for 2021.
Minister Hackett said: “It is really important that our recovery from COVID-19 is a green recovery, so I am delighted that the ring-fenced €23m from the carbon tax, along with additional funding from the EU.
“In addition I have secured very welcome funding for forestry, horticulture, organics, habitat creation and peatlands rewetting.”
Allocations
Additional allocations confirmed by Minister Hackett include:
Minister Hackett said she expects the increase in the budget for the organic farming scheme will support an additional 400 to 500 farmers to join the sector.
Farm safety
The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon announced an initiative which will see over 50,000 farmers’ access farm safety training.
Heydon said: “I want to put safety at the heart of our farms and I want farmers to be centrally involved in how we do that. I intend to launch a call under the locally led Innovation partnership mode.
“This will see the provision of €1m in funding supporting a competitive, ‘locally led’ call for farm safety initiatives.”
The Minister also pointed out that the combined investment in Research and Innovation by the Department, Teagasc and the Marine Institute is now over €60m annually.
Allocations confirmed by Minister Heydon include:
SHARING OPTIONS