Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the committee. I am interested in the 5 tonne per hectare yield in the organic sector and the gross margin for organic crops, which seem to be quite high. There is a problem getting enough people to join the sector, but what is the solution to that and what needs to be done? There was mention of the reopening of the scheme for tillage farmers and so on, and that could be done, but there must also be a demand-led element. Ms Westbrook said there is very high demand, particularly in the oats sector, and yet not enough people are prepared to produce it. Is that because organic farming involves more difficult husbandry such that farmers are afraid of it and do not want to go down that road or is the price, which seems high, not high enough to compensate for those difficulties?

In regard to the drinks sector, I know the Shed Distillery very well as it is beside where I live in Leitrim. It is a great success story and is doing great work there.

Members would expect the drinks industry to aim to source all its grain in Ireland. If a drinks company that wanted to label its product as Irish had to use Irish ingredients, would that cause a problem due to insufficient raw material being produced here? Most people would think it logical that if one were to say a product is Irish water, that water would have to come from Ireland, or if one were to call a product Irish whiskey, at least a fair proportion of its raw materials would have to be sourced in Ireland. However, the question is whether sufficient materials can be produced here. If that is not the case, it comes back to the point made by Senator Daly as to whether farmers are not being offered a good enough price to produce them. I do not drink very much but what little I do is very dear. That is the same for everyone. The vast majority of people would not begrudge the farmer an extra 0.1% on the price of a pint. If one goes into a bar after 12 midnight the price goes up and then a little later the price goes up again because publicans have to pay staff extra. There needs to be joined-up thinking to come up with a solution. There has to be one if there is a sector as successful and with such potential as the Irish drinks industry and also a farming sector that has the potential to provide for that but cannot do so because it is not being adequately compensated. I want to get the witnesses' views on where a solution may lie. Does somebody need to put their hand deeper into their pocket?