Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for coming today. I agree with many of the points made, particularly on this new partnership. We must encourage young farmers to get involved in the business of farming and we must ensure the installation aid scheme comes back. We are in difficult financial times but perhaps in a year or two it might be back. We must encourage older farmers to hand over land or farm in partnership with younger farmers. The delegation mentioned running two herds together in the presentation. I do not know how that would work from the point of view of disease control, but we all started off, when we were not so restricted, by running a few animals on our parents' farms, or on a neighbour's farm if one was helping out a neighbour. That is more difficult now with disease control in place. It is a good idea and we should consider it.

The reference year creates a problem. The damage is done because many people made the decision having assumed 2014 would be the reference year and have possibly decided not to give the land to the farmer who used to get it. Could we move forward without using any reference year, based on whoever is farming when the application date comes?

Much the same would apply to farmers milking cows. I presume the land would be leased and that another farmer would not be milking in the same dairy. Two farmers working in partnership could use the same dairy, although again disease might be a problem. How would that be overcome? Perhaps the two herds could be isolated.

I thank the delegation for the presentation. We are happy to engage with the witnesses to see how we can make progress on these issues.