The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has opened a public consultation on its new Statement of Strategy that will cover the period 2025 to 2028.

The aim of the consultation is to gather stakeholder feedback on the department's next strategy statement, and will close for submissions at 5:00p.m on Friday, April 11.

The department has commenced the process of developing its new Statement of Strategy to cover the next three-year period.

The objectives for the agriculture sector outlined in the Programme for Government for the current government will be used to guide the development of the department's strategic vision, mission statement, and goals for the upcoming period.

Interested stakeholders are invited to submit their views on which issues or topics should be focused on in the strategy.

Submissions can be sent to the department via email or post.

DAFM said: "We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. We will consider all submissions and feedback before we publish the Statement of Strategy."

DAFM also said it will carefully consider all comments and suggestions received and will publish a consultation response.

However, given the expected volume and the variety of comments, DAFM does not intend to respond to individual submissions but will group responses and provide an overall response to each consultation topic.

Personal data included in submissions will be redacted by DAFM prior to publication.

The submissions will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI); the Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) Regulations 2007-2018; and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Anyone making a submission is asked to indicate to any sensitive information in responding to this consultation, and to indicate where responses contain any information that is preferred not be released under FOI, AIE or otherwise.

Such information can contain personal information, commercially sensitive information, or confidential information.