Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being a bit late. Like previous speakers, I welcome the MMF agreement in the last number of weeks. It is a positive step and we can move on now to negotiating the real issues that affect us. The reference year is an issue that has affected us but we have heard very little about it recently. What is the situation with that? It is having a detrimental effect on the price of conacre. There must be some stability and certainty brought to that soon.

The age profile of farmers here and across Europe is very high. There have been suggestions about incentives for young farmers. Has there been any talk of incentives to move older farmers out of the system and to get younger farmers back in? It must be a two-way process. There is no point in having younger farmers come in if older farmers are still in the system. There has to be an incentive in both directions.

It was suggested in the earlier part of the negotiations that we would be doing away with bureaucracy. Will greening introduce an extra element of bureaucracy? It seems to involve a great deal more paperwork. We need a more simplified system. The inspections regime irritates most farmers. We have recently seen a great deal of talk about the horse burger issue and the reported lack of an inspections regime in that context. At farm-gate level the inspections regime is very rigid. Will it be as rigid in the future if there is going to be a simplified system?