Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to the Chamber to speak about this fantastic legislation. Ireland is world class in delivering on food and farming, with grass-fed farms. This is the next step to bring us up and ensure there is transparency at all stages. I welcome this new Bill. As the Minister mentioned, 9% of exports come from the farming sector. Nearly 170,000 people work in the sector. That is probably not even counting the number of retailers and processors. It is incredible to think that 170,000 people are engaged in farming and fishing as well. He also mentioned that €18.7 billion is generated by this sector. It shows how Ireland has come on in leaps and bounds in the quality of what we do and how we use innovation and drive ahead. Our farmers are doing that by working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its officials. The Minister spoke about the role of an rialálaí agraibhia. The person who is starting in this role will hit the ground running.Already those measures have been set up within the Department and so on, and this is the next step in the Seanad.

I mention the enforcement side of this. We are looking at transparency and we will get data about all the elements of the food chain and so on but we are also looking at enforcement. The Minister might comment a little bit more about section 14 and about how this person will carry out these inspections. They will be able to bring proceedings for offences and refer cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Do we have an idea of numbers within two or three years? Will there be a target to have X amount of inspections, outcomes or impacts in these areas of enforcement? That will show people the importance and value of this regulator and what this will mean. The communication around this will be crucial. Farmers, small processors, retailers and suppliers all need to be aware of the impact of this new role so communication on that will be really crucial.

I want to acknowledge the recent announcements from the Department, which I welcome. I know we are trying to do work on the targeted agriculture modernisation schemes, TAMS, and I mention the 60% grant aid for solar panels and so on. That is crucial for farming. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, will be looking at farm safety under Teagasc and there is 60% grant aid for farm safety measures as well. How is that coming along in terms of applications for or interest in the programme? I know the Minister recently announced nearly €300,000 in funding for agrifood tourism. That highlights groups like the BIA Innovator Campus in Athenry in Galway and the importance of agrifood tourism linking with heritage and culture, which is crucial.

I mention the suckler carbon efficiency programme and there has been a great uptake in that with 20,000 farmers participating. From what I understand that includes nearly 2,500 farmers in Galway alone and 1,200 farmers in Roscommon. That shows how farmers are driving innovation in trying to meet our targets. I mention the quality of food production on this island again.

Only recently there was another programme announced and the Minister might reference it. It is under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage but a grant of €7,500 for farm houses was announced, including measures under expert conservation advice. Through that, farmers can look at pulling down the Croí Cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant of over €50,000, potentially, for farm houses that have been left vacant. This is income coming into farming families across the country. These programmes and schemes are ways for income to come into our farming families, as well as to ensure we are looking at driving income through transparent measures with this new regulator post. I know the Minister will be speaking to a lot of points but it is important for us to see that what he is trying to do here will make a massive difference to farming families. I look forward to seeing the impact of that in the next while.