The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) president, Denis Drennan has said that despite massive challenges, Irish farmers are engaged in the effort to address climate change.

Speaking at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Agriculture and Climate Change conference, Drennan said that the results and data were now "showing the fruits" of farmers' efforts.

Drennan believes that farmers are committed and "on board" with plans to mitigate climate change.

However, he stressed that farmers needed reassurance that those plans still rested on "the three pillars of sustainability", including economic, environmental, and social.

The ICMSA president said: "There are challenges ahead that will have to be faced, and even leaving aside the very significant and unfair anomalies in the accountancy framework used for measuring emissions, the most obvious challenge is the ongoing failure of government to step up and support farmers.

"It’s this failure of the government to support its own policies and recommendations that is hampering even more encouraging results and data.

"Irish agriculture is leading the way globally in meeting the climate challenge and the ICMSA believes that farmers can, and will, do more if properly supported," Drennan added.

According to the ICMSA president, the government has to stop "coming up with reasons for not taking action" on climate change.

Drennan believes that Budget 2026 should be used to signal a "more proactive approach".

He also called on the government to "work with farmers to make progress" on Ireland's emission targets.

Drennan said: "Work with farmers to make more progress ,or ultimately pay the fines that will be levied, because Ireland falls short on the emissions targets that could have been hit if we’d had the support.

"Budget 2026 is where we’ll see if the government understands that choice and has made a decision that is logical on both the environmental and financial fronts," he added.