Mr. John Fitzgerald:

Deputy Deering spoke about agricultural colleges. While I accept that the numbers have increased enormously over recent years, I often wonder whether many people are going to agricultural colleges just to do a third level course. The greater the numbers in our agricultural colleges, the more diluted the courses become and the more difficult it is to get a proper education. There is definitely a need for an effective farm management training programme. We all accept that farm managers need to have multiple skills. They have to be capable of managing staff. They must have a certain level of veterinarian, agronomist and economist skills. If we are to achieve the 2020 targets and avail of and exploit the opportunities that will present themselves after 2015, many of which we have not experienced for 30 years, we will need to put in place a better education system for farm managers.

We will have to focus on technological options, for example. Just 4% of those involved in the farming sector are engaged in grass budgeting, which is probably the most critical factor in dairy farming and beef farming in our climate. Perhaps it is not as important in other European countries. If we want to exploit this country's recognised grass growing potential, we will have to ensure more than 4% of our grass farming community know how much grass they are growing and how they are utilising it. Similarly, just 6% of the farming population are engaged in flows so that they know their costs. Nobody can run a business without knowing their costs. That is why it is imperative for us to put training systems in place. We need to train people to do that. It is obvious the new UCD diploma in farm management must be promoted. We feel that a designated unit should be established within Teagasc to drive this programme, which will deliver in 2015. There are many college courses, but the content of many of them is not adequate.