Cabinet is expected to sign off on the Climate Action Plan for 2023 on Wednesday, Minister Eamon Ryan has confirmed.

A cabinet sub-committee meeting will take place on Tuesday to thrash out the measures the plan will include, with a final document to be submitted to cabinet on Wednesday.

The plan will set out how all sectors, including agriculture, will be expected to reach their respective goals for carbon emissions reduction.

Concerns

Chief among farmers’ concerns is whether controversial cull schemes for both the dairy and suckler herds will be adopted.

The Food Vision reports (dairy and beef and sheep) both included recommendations for cull schemes, but the proposal to cull sucklers encountered most opposition from farming groups.

The INHFA walked out of the Food Vision talks in protest over the suckler extensification and diversification recommendations, while all the other farming groups – IFA, ICSA, ICMSA and Macra- as well as Meat Industry Ireland, strongly objected to the moves.

The farming groups refused to endorse the suckler recommendations without seeing any potential support payments for farmers.

Meat Industry Ireland warned that a suckler cull, which it estimated to be 200,000 cows, would cost the rural economy €1.5bn in beef output, 6,500 job losses, and 14,500 farmers leaving the sector.

Speaking on RTE Radio on Monday morning, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan refused to be drawn on the level of a cow cull, saying only that the measures would be linked to the required reduction in carbon emissions – which for agriculture is 25% by 2030.