Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. Most of the points have been covered but I wish to raise a topic I have been talking about for many years. In my previous job I represented hill farmers, most of whom were from the west, within the IFA and I covered the western seaboard. I am interested in Deputy Ó Cuív's point about the Wild Atlantic Way brand and in branding lamb from along the coastline as wild Atlantic lamb. The volume would be there. There is an area in west Sligo where people sell organic lamb, as do people in Connemara and Kerry. There is significant potential if everybody came together. Now is the time to encourage people to graze these hills some more. The hills were overgrazed but then left undergrazed for eight to ten years. We would like to encourage young people in particular to get their sheep stock back on the hills. To do that they must be assured of a good price for their product. Irish lamb is an excellent product and there is significant potential with organic lamb and smaller carcases in beef, such as Angus beef which is more easily finished. Grain can now be sourced within Ireland rather than it having to be imported. This was a problem if one wanted to finish animals as the organic grain was expensive and people had to pay high prices. More of that grain can be home-grown so while there is potential, much work remains to be done. The number of farmers is quite small, as Senator O'Brien has said. With 1,700 organic farmers, we should certainly try to encourage more farmers to get into this type of business.