Mr. Patrick Kent:

On my way here I went to a sustainability summit in the Aviva Stadium, met some very interesting people and heard some interesting presentations. I was a little disappointed that the biggest presentation was by the biggest chemical company in the US, the Dow Chemical Company. Some of these chemical companies want to get control of the seeds. They sell genetically modified seeds, and under their contracts farmers must use their products, so they are forced into producing GM crops. The entire industry is based on this big chain of getting profit back to the big multinationals. They do not want labelling. In the United States they do not want food labelled, despite the fact that more than 90% of consumers want labelling. They fight us with huge funds to prevent food labelling even though consumers want to know what they are eating.

The health of consumers is decreasing. Ireland is destined to become the most obese nation in Europe in a very short time. On Sunday, a group of Swedish people came to see my cattle. I produce Belgian Blue cattle on my farm. They found it on the Internet and two busloads came to see my cattle. I also took them to a local dairy farm. I thought they were very fit and agile people. A similar busload of people from Ireland might not be quite so fit, and I fear for the health of Irish people. The announcement by the World Health Organization that sparked cancer fears was not about red meat as such but processed red meat. There is risk that it could be misinterpreted, and people will not want to eat the lovely, sumptuous grass-fed lamb and beef that we produce here, which is life-enhancing, increases longevity and reduces susceptibility to cancer, obesity and a whole lot of degenerative diseases, including brain disorders. There is a massive lack of marketing from an Irish perspective.

We have dropped the ball on this one with regard to not declaring ourselves GM-free. We cannot grow GM crops here, as there is no possible crop we can grow, but we certainly will be competing against cattle fed on genetically modified feed, antibiotics, antimicrobials and in-feed additives. In the United States, 20 feedlots produce more than half of all cattle, and if the attention of one of those feedlots was directed towards the European market it would scuttle us because their unit cost of production is much lower. There are massive question marks about the healthiness of this product. If the product from such a producer went to McDonald's it would take away a lot of our market for forequarter beef. If it went into restaurants it would take away our higher-price market. Our unit size here is quite small and we are very vulnerable. Many small family farms depend on their beef and lamb enterprises. They would be out of business. They could not survive. What will be done with all of the people leaving farming if this is not protected?

Labelling is a huge issue. Deputy Ferris mentioned the missed opportunity on GM and feedlot controls. There are a few very large factory farm units in Ireland and they receive very large single farm payments. Deputy Deering spoke about the weanling price and education. The person getting the high price for those weanlings needs every penny and I cannot say the person received too much for them.

I know the cost of production and the amount of work that goes into such a process so we cannot talk against the price of cattle. Price is open to the free market but we need more support in respect of beef. We need more investment in rural Ireland in order to make it vibrant. Recently, I spoke to a broadcaster who said there was a slight bit more buoyancy in rural Ireland because beef prices this year were not quite so bad. I said to him that if the same happened again and we got 50 cent per pound, then rural Ireland would be lifted up which would mean that people could commit and invest more. Farmers are great at spending money because they will do up a shed, extend their house or whatever. They do not pocket their profits but they need a rainy day fund, as mentioned by Deputy Martin Ferris. Mr. John Comer, who made his presentation before me, certainly referred to it. We included it in our pre-budget submissions as well. We referred to the Australian scheme whereby farmers can put their money away for a rainy day but pay tax on it later when they draw it down. For farmers, such an initiative would act as a bulwark against a bad year. Ireland suffers weather events slightly more frequently now and prices have been affected. Therefore, we need such a fund to be provided during a good year. Unfortunately, farmers have not had many good years in recent times. A fund would act as a bulwark against a bad year.

Senator Comiskey mentioned the nomadic cattle issue. I agree with him that it is a huge problem which needs to be addressed.

I have spoken to Mr. Mark Durkan, MLA, and Minister for the Environment in the North of Ireland. He had suggested to his ministerial counterpart in the South that both jurisdictions join together and declare the island a GM-free zone. He was shocked that such an initiative did not happen and he wants to know why. We need to ask the Ministers for the Environment, Community and Local Government and Agriculture, Food and the Marine why it did not happen. We have not received a satisfactory answer for why that date was passed. We need to ask why repeatedly until we get a satisfactory answer. Were these people lobbied by somebody else? I wish to declare that we lobbied them in the other direction and to declare the island a GM-free zone. If there was lobbying in the other direction, then we need to know immediately who did so and why.

There has been a drop in sheep numbers. I have a very able sheep chairman seated on my left and he will address the matter. I also have a beef chairman seated on my right. We need a scheme for sheep and the money seems to be available.

Knowledge transfer programmes are very important, as is education. I personally believe that there are huge question marks about the type of education that some young farmers are being forced into enduring in order to qualify for a green certificate. In order to qualify for schemes, young farmers must undertake courses of varying levels. It seems that the mantra is "Produce more for less" but there is no future in producing more for less. We want to get more and then we will produce more. One also hears that by 2050 there will be 9 billion people in the world so farmers must get busy. We are going be dead by 2050. We will certainly will not be farming at that stage and if we are then we will be going about on two sticks. A few old crocks is all that will be left farming in Ireland at that time if TTIP is approved because young people will have emigrated to farm elsewhere. Recently I heard the phrase in a film to get busy living or get busy dying. We will certainly be busy dying as farmers if TTIP runs through without giving us proper food labelling and a proper price for our product. The Irish product is far superior to what is available in the United States of America where its people are even more obese than they are here. There are question marks regarding the education provided.

The next issue is knowledge transfer and mentoring by older farmers. I have spoken to a lot of older successful farmers who have been through the programme. There seems to be a lot of mentoring done in business as well. The farming sector should have more mentoring rather than scientists trying to sell junk science. There are a lot more false prophets than ever before and they are sponsored. The sponsorship of the likes of Teagasc by a meat company that tells farmers to get busy producing more. The company is going to set up a 125-acre farm in the west of Ireland which will have 100 suckler cows but only one man running the farm. All of the cattle for beef production will be fed using an intensive indoor meal system. I shudder when I think of the kind of product that such a farm will produce.

A similar dairy system exists in Kilkenny and it was shocking to see how many cattle died there when the region suffered extreme weather last year. The case was mentioned in the newspapers a few weeks ago. If animal welfare people saw what happens at that location, pressure would be put on farming in Ireland. We should not set up examples that show how inefficient farmers are. We must set up examples that show how good we are at producing high-quality food. We should not pressurise farmers further but pay them adequately to produce more if they can afford to do so. I shall not say too much more.

Senator Mary Ann O'Brien mentioned the TTIP labelling issue. We have dropped the ball on the GM issue. We have got pick it up, run with it and batten down the hatches in respect of it. I shall ask my two able chairmen to comment.