Minister Grealish visits the Teagasc Crops Research Programme

The visit was hosted by Liam Herlihy, Teagasc chairperson, with an overview of the Teagasc Crops, Environment and Land use programme presented by John Spink.

Dr Ewen Mullins, Head of the crops research centre spoke about the new opportunities for Irish agriculture and the crops sector that will now arise because of the recent vote in the European Parliament on the regulation of novel breeding techniques. Specifically, this will have near term impact on the ability to enhance existing varieties with stronger agronomic traits that support pesticide use reduction targets.

The latest from the Teagasc potato breeding programme was outlined by Dr Dan Milbourne, with the Minister sampling how the latest potato varieties tasted when made into chips. The details of the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) funded CRISSP and VICCI research projects were discussed with the Minister. Dr Milbourne outlined how work in VICCI enabled the development of genomic and marker assisted selection approaches to combine excellent processing characteristics (eg good fry colour) with disease resistance in potato varieties. While this technology is now routinely used in the Teagasc/IPM Potato Group Ltd breeding programme, the CRRISP project involved applying traditional and genome-based breeding to a pilot potato breeding programme in Kenya. This feeds into both Teagasc’s international development commitments and supporting responsible expansion of Irish potato seed production into East Africa.

The National Centre for Brewing and Distilling (NCBD) at Teagasc Oak Park, is Ireland’s integrated pilot-scale centre for malting, brewing, distilling, and dealcoholisation. Minister Grealish visited the centre and discussed ongoing projects, research initiatives and industry partnerships aimed at supporting innovation across Ireland’s beverage and malting sector sectors.

Lisa Ryan, manager of the NCBD highlighted how pilot‑scale facilities and technical expertise (including dedicated laboratories) shorten development timelines and lower scale‑up risk for breweries, distilleries, and maltsters, enabling more product launches and faster market entry. This support helps small and medium producers access advanced processing (including dealcoholisation), reduces capital expenditure needs, fosters industry‑academia collaboration, and builds specialist skills, all of which drive competitiveness, job creation, and export potential across regional communities.

Ricardo Pimenta and Frances McHugh from Teagasc, outlined the ongoing ash dieback research being undertaken through the DAFM and DAERA funded AshforFuture project, an all-island initiative focused on developing ash trees with improved resilience. Through a citizen science initiative, AshforFuture has received over 450 reports of healthy ash trees from across Ireland, leading to the identification and propagation of nearly four hundred potentially tolerant genotypes for genetic evaluation and field testing. The project has already identified a small number of highly tolerant trees, which will form the formation of future breeding populations and seed orchards aimed at supporting the long-term restoration of ash in Ireland.

 

In the field Dr. Steven Kildea, Teagasc researcher, presented some of the ongoing crop protection project and trial work supported by DAFM funded research. The 2026 growing season has so far been ideal for some diseases, with Minister Grealish observing some of the diseases which farmers have been battling. Dr Kildea spoke about how his research is helping combat these, emphasising the need for a toolbox integrating as many control measures as possible.