Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the witnesses for the varied and very detailed presentations we received. We must go away and take a bit of time to digest all of the information they have given us. It strikes me that agriculture in Ireland is paying a price because of the lack of industrialisation across the rest of the country. There is probably a fear that agriculture will be inadvertently and disproportionately hit compared to other countries even though it is quite efficient because it contributes 33% and because of the 20% reduction on a national level that needs to happen. That is probably more of a comment than a question.

It might not be politically correct to say this but given our size, we will put ourselves to great measures to try to make ourselves as efficient as possible when much larger countries with much larger populations and other less developed parts of the world are doing untold damage to the environment. Our little impact will not have any impact on the larger scale. How would the witnesses respond to this statement? What would they say to the ordinary farmer who is going to see the impact of further changes and measures? It is important to reiterate that Irish farmers strongly embraced the likes of REPS and the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, and will continue to do so. Farmer are custodians of the land and have always taken measures in that regard. I am not saying they want to go out and wreck it but I can see the argument. When it is sent back to one, it is very hard to argue against us bringing in all these measures that will have no impact on other parts of the country that are slower to sign up to the measures.