merrion street

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D, today has received the final report of the Food Vision Dairy Group. The Minister thanked the Group and its chair for the hard work and diligence in compiling the detailed report.

The report contains measures on how to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sector and has been submitted to the Minister by the Group Chair Professor Gerry Boyle. The Minister acknowledged the intensive work carried out by the Group to produce this final report, and thanked Professor Boyle and the members of the Group for their professional and committed engagement in this process.

In January 2022, Minister McConalogue established the Food Vision Dairy Group, which was a key objective of the Food Vision 2030 report, with a priority task to identify measures that the dairy sector can take to contribute to stabilising and reducing agriculture emissions while also charting an overall direction for the sector up to 2030. The Group, which is chaired by Professor Gerry Boyle, includes representatives from farm organisations, the dairy processing industry, academia, relevant State and other agencies, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The report sets out 19 recommendations which have been the subject of detailed discussions, including both direct impact measures, whose impact can be counted directly in the national agriculture emissions inventory, and enabling actions which, while outside the inventory, support and enable the adoption of the direct measures.

Chair Group, Professor Gerry Boyle commented: “This process has enabled all stakeholders to shape how Ireland’s dairy industry can best meet its climate change commitments. I believe that this report captures all of the various perspectives of stakeholders following nine months of intensive deliberations. I thank all of the stakeholders sincerely for their positive engagement in this process. Despite the best efforts of all concerned, it has not been possible to secure unanimous agreement, and where stakeholders have reservations these are clearly noted in the report and I’m confident that in the deliberations that will follow, these concerns can be satisfactorily addressed.”

Minister McConalogue concluded: “I thank the members of the Food Vision Dairy Group for the time and effort they have invested in this process, and will study this report carefully before deciding on next steps. My ultimate aim is to futureproof our world-class dairy industry for the benefit or our industry, the environment and our farm families who are the bedrock of the entire sector.” The Final Report is available here.

END