I raise the important issue of agriculture. This week, there has been much discussion of the environment, with the ongoing conference in Glasgow discussing how we will save the world from itself and from us. I also understand the climate action plan will be launched today. The KPMG economic impact analysis carried out on behalf of the Irish Farmers Journal points to a frightening scenario for farming in this country as a result of proposals to reduce carbon emissions for the farming sector. Small family farms of 50 acres or less will probably face the greatest burden arising from the new farming methods that will be brought in to try to deal with carbon emissions.

The CAP proposals put forward by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine are creating a sense that CAP funding, which has been used historically to provide family income support, will be used to provide for environmental schemes. The farming community is concerned that this will be done without first considering that income has to be protected before we look at how to provide investment upfront to ensure small family farms survive. The programme for Government proposes that additional funding be made available beyond the CAP to help farmers to meet these challenges. It is important that the Minister understand that farmers in my area, including small suckler farmers, beef cattle finishers, sheep farmers and tillage farmers, all of whom depend heavily on direct payments for their incomes, are worried that they will not get the same level of support they got in the past. They are also worried that they will have to invest more in their farms to bring them to a point where they reduce carbon emissions.

Farmers want to participate in this and ensure we have a better environment. Over the years, they have shown themselves to be good custodians of the environment. Ireland ranks first and fifth, respectively, in Europe for dairy and beef production. We are at a crossroads worldwide in an environmental sense but we are also putting agriculture at a crossroads. I ask the Minister to outline how we will ensure that the proper turn is taken at that crossroads.

In my experience of engaging directly with farmers and the agricultural community, those who most understand the challenges of sustainability and what is happening in nature in front of our eyes are those who earn a living from it and engage with it every day on their farms with their herds. I fully understand the anxiety about what the future could bring. It is a future and an anxiety that stretches beyond our agricultural community. Of course I understand that this issue is of fundamental importance to farmers. This is why the climate action plan the Government will launch today is a plan for our entire country and every sector of our society and economy. We are asking and calling on all to play their part in responding to this great challenge.

It is in recognition of the issues that Deputy Canney raised that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, worked so hard to get where we are now with CAP funding and to put in place the funding that would be needed to respond to the issues the Deputy is referring to. Deputy Canney will be aware of the strategic plan in CAP, which has funding of €3.86 billion. Pillar 2 of that plan is focused on how we can invest in the future and focus on the investment and infrastructure that will be needed to cope with change. There is increased funding for the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, the dairy beef welfare scheme, the sheep improvement scheme and the organic farming scheme. Funding is being put against all of those programmes to respond to the needs farmers and the farming community are raising directly with the Government and through Deputy Canney.

The Minister and the entire Government believe that Irish farming has demonstrated again and again its ability to put in place sustainable practices to bring the best of organic farming into farms all over the country. We will harness that commitment and co-operate and work closely with our farmers to move to a future in which they are central. Along with all of us in the country, farmers will make changes and we will support them in doing so to help us respond to the existential challenge we face.

The point I am making, one which the Minister has not homed in on, is that we need to protect family farm income in the first instance. We also need to provide front-loaded funding to allow farmers to change their work practices to ensure they are doing so in an environmentally-friendly way. Those are two separate matters. The concern farmers have is that the CAP is being taken hostage to pay for the environmental measures and that their family supports will be lost. To take small farms of 50 acres as an example, only one third of these farms are viable. The security of these family farms is in doubt if we do not address this matter in a tangible way. I ask for further engagement with the farming organisations to ensure Pillar 2 of the CAP is administered in a way that makes a difference to farm incomes, rather than just creating consultancy fees.

I understand where the Deputy is coming from. This is the reason Pillar 2 funding is now €900 million higher than it was in the previous scheme between 2016 and 2020. This is an increase in funding of 30% for Pillar 2. Deputy Canney will know better than me that it is sometimes the case that funding made available through the CAP or through the Government directly has conditions and requirements attached to it. This funding should be used to support our farming community and farm incomes when farmers are going through a period of such change.

To go into the specifics, this is why there will be a dairy beef welfare scheme and a sheep improvement scheme and it is why we will honour the commitment to put in place an organic farming scheme for which €256 million of funding will be made available. The Minister has already given the commitment that he will consult widely with the agricultural community on this plan and this issue. I will pass on to him directly what Deputy Canney has said.