Going green “is not a cost or a burden” according to Minister Eamon Ryan, who has defended the climate action measures announced as part of Budget 2021.

The Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport told the Dáil yesterday (Wednesday, October 14) that we “now have a budget where we can focus on asking farmers to actually engage their real skills and expertise in habitat creation and in restoring nature in their own corners and in the right places within the fields on their farms”.

He said: “It gives those young people going into farming a key role and the skills for these great challenges of our time. It will give them an income as they do so.”

‘It is also about a radical improvement’

Speaking of various measures set out by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Minister Ryan said that they are not just about habitat creation, but also about a “radical improvement”.