Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join other speakers in welcoming the Macra na Feirme delegation.

The real issue for me is still land mobility. Macra na Feirme produced a report two or three years that came up with a frightening statistic that there were more farmers over 80 than under 35. That statistic is what haunts farming. I do not know whether looking to increase the age of a young farmer from 35 to 40 will help that scenario. On this issue of land transfer, and the requirement to have farmers reach their thirty-fifth birthday to move it, I wonder will they be now required to reach their fortieth birthday to move it. Some of us here are farmers. We know how farmers think and it is an issue. I am genuinely concerned about that and how we deal with it in the long term. It is something this committee must look at with help from Macra. However, it is a key issue. As Macra has proven with its statistics, when one gets a young trained farmer on a property the productivity goes up and everything else goes up with it, but how does one manage it? I do not know whether making a young trained farmer 40 is the correct approach.