23. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on the social farming scheme; the level of take up on the scheme to date throughout the country; if he intends expanding the scheme in 2027; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52196/26]

Social farming is the practice of offering, on a voluntary basis, farming and horticultural participation in a farming environment as a choice to people who avail of a range of therapeutic day support services. My Department has strongly supported the development of social farming in Ireland over the last decade.

My Department has a budget of €1.277m allocated to Social Farming programmes for 2026. The Rural Innovation and Development Fund (RIDF) distributes this funding through two separate funding streams.

The first stream of funding is the national network. This funding goes towards the development and maintenance of a nationwide project which supports and co-ordinates social farming across the State.

The primary aim of this network is to expand and develop social farming nationally by increasing the number of host farms, participants, placement days and service providers engaged in social farming. In 2025 there were over 10,400 social farming placement days secured for 1,014 participants through the national network. Over 160 farms were engaged as national network farms in 2025, with a further 60 farms undertaking training at the end of the year to possibly enter the pool of available locations for placements. The national network engaged with over 140 service providers in 2025 across a range of sectors including disability, mental health and youth services.

The second funding element is focused on the development of model social farming projects.

These projects aim to provide the best social farming experience for the participants who can avail of the service. The projects’ goals are to foster inclusion, build self-esteem and improve health and well-being for the participants.

This year there was once again significant interest in operating model social farm projects and a comprehensive public procurement competition for model projects was run in the first half of this year. My Department is currently notifying successful applicants.

Social Farming provides a planned, outcome focused, support placement for people on a farm using the natural assets of the people, the place, the activities and the community to support a person to achieve some of their own chosen goals. It is fundamentally based on spending time with farmers and their families in the natural environment of the farm, but also encompasses two other key elements; valuable, meaningful activities and social and community connection which combine to deepen its impact further and to support recovery.

My Department is committed to expanding and improving the services available to participants through our support for Social Farming endeavours across the country and intends to continue to support these programmes in 2027.