Mr. James Healy:

I will try to address as many questions as possible. Deputy Cullinane referred to more democracy in Europe and a more social Europe. From our point of view, we consider Europe fairly democratic. However, we envisage some reform of the European Parliament, with perhaps more powers for it and the parliamentarians to make for a more efficient decision making process. We also believe that having two parliaments, one in Brussels and one in Strasbourg, cannot help the efficiency of a European decision making body.

With regard to reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, as Mr. John Comer said European member states are currently spending 1% of GDP to the EU budget and, as we said in our opening statement, we would seek to have that input increased, particularly with the UK pulling out and leaving a gap in the budget. The amount that is suggested is an increase to perhaps 1.1% of GDP. We would support that, particularly in view of the new European problems that are arising. On the question of reform of the CAP, we were the first European farming organisation to have a policy document before the Commission, which was early this year. It was a roadmap for generational renewal and it ties together the rural development side with the agriculture side. We view young people as key to the future of both farming and rural development. Rural communities cannot survive without farmers to keep them alive. As has been said, many of the manufacturing and service jobs in this country are moving further east and drawing more young people out of our rural communities. Unless there is investment in those communities we will not be able to keep young people in them. However, to justify that investment there must be farmers in the community who are providing employment. A recent Teagasc report stated that we will need 6,000 young people for the dairy industry alone in the next couple of years. There are some employment opportunities there, but investment must be made in those rural areas to allow people to stay there.

With regard to the environment, the Senator referred to the pollination plan. We made a submission to that and we were glad to see the report that emerged. However, we believe that element of the Common Agricultural Policy could be reformed as well. There should be practical, targeted and measurable schemes whereby farmers should be compensated to the value of the public good they are providing. The schemes in place at present are not the best vehicle for achieving the type of results that are required. When we speak to young farmers they tell us they believe they are environmentalists. They are guardians of the countryside, they want to take ownership of the problems and issues and to lead the drive towards improvement on them.

As regards regional development and the national planning framework, we made a submission earlier this year to the Ireland 2040 plan. A draft of the plan only emerged in September and with the National Ploughing Championships and everything else we have not had a chance to go through it. We will make further comment when we have had that chance. However, we attended a rural development plan monitoring committee meeting recently. Indecon produced a report, an ex anteassessment of financial market failures, which showed that there was a capital expenditure gap of €105 million last year and that if Ireland is to continue towards its Food Wise 2025 targets that would stretch to up to €350 million. Financial measures must be introduced to allow young farmers to make the investments that must be made both to expand their business and do so in an environmentally sustainable way.

On Brexit, various sectors in different areas of the country are experiencing different levels of impact. The currency fluctuation is clearly having a huge impact. Whether it is the mushroom sector or any other sector, people are struggling massively even though Brexit has not happened yet. We appeared before the Seanad committee on Brexit earlier this year and put forward our six solutions. We believe it is vital that the investment is made now to protect people because volatility will be a huge factor. It is part of our budget submission that the income volatility must be addressed, not only at European level but also at national level. Europe cannot fix everything for us. Investment opportunities, be it more access to low-cost loans or similar financial instruments, would be a positive way of sheltering not just young farmers but all small and medium sized employers. They are equally open to that type of impact.

I have probably jumped around in answering some of the questions.