Charlie McConalogue: ‘Appetite for change is out there among farmers’

Now into his second year in the role, the Minister for Agriculture says the expansion of Ireland’s dairy herd has to stop if the farming sector is to meet its climate targets

Charlie McConalogue: ‘Obviously climate change presents big challenges for agriculture as it does for all aspects of the economy’. Picture: Clive Wasson

The office of the Minister for Agriculture sits on the fifth floor of Agriculture House, the grey 1970s office block on Dublin’s Kildare Street. As you emerge from the lift, you’re immediately faced with a row of framed photographs denoting each of the previous ministers going right back to Robert Barton in 1919. But as of now, there are three missing.

The display ends at Michael Creed, who served as Minister for Agriculture from 2016 ...