Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has issued a reminder about the closing date for submissions on the Agri-Food Strategy to 2030.
The public consultation on the draft strategy itself along with the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) opened on April 19, and will close on June 15 at midday.
The draft strategy was prepared by a committee of stakeholders, chaired by Tom Arnold, and facilitated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In parallel with the work of the committee, the SEA and AA were prepared independently by RSK Ireland Limited to determine the likely significant effects on the environment of implementing the strategy.
Robust discussions on Agri-Food Strategy
In reminding stakeholders of the ongoing consultation, the minister said he has been “encouraged by the robust debates, discussions and opinions that have already been expressed by many stakeholders”.
His department recently held a series of Food System Dialogues in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the RDS, ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit later this year.
In order to facilitate further consultation on the strategy, a webinar will be hosted by RSK Ireland at 3:00p.m on Tuesday, June 8.
The webinar will discuss the SEA and AA process and will present the outcomes of the assessments. Speakers will include the consultants from RSK Environment who completed the assessments and Tom Arnold.
This will be followed by a question and answer session. Registration details for this webinar can be found here.