Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I represent an urban constituency in Dublin Bay North, agricultural issues do not arise very often. That said, I appreciate the important role that agriculture plays in the national economy. Mr. Healy pointed out that 40% of our food exports go to the UK, and that makes Brexit a great challenge for all of us.

If my questions appear very basic it is because I am not involved in the day-to-day detail of agricultural policy. From where does the threat to CAP arise? Mr. Healy made the point strongly that we should be committed to a fully-funded CAP post 2020. All of us will agree with that, it is in our national interest and the joint committee should include the country's strong commitment to the CAP process as a nation state in our final report.

Is it purely a budgetary issue from the point of view of the European Union as a whole or is it maybe something to do with increased urbanisation? Where do the farmers see the threat to CAP coming from? Mr. Healy mentioned that most of the scenarios put forward by the European Commission envisage the CAP being reduced in some way or other.

On a separate but maybe related issue, do the witnesses have statistics for the consumption of beef and meat generally? There seems to be a movement in urban areas to say that meat is bad for one. Perhaps it has to do with climate change, I am not sure, or maybe it is a health issue too and young people in particular are becoming vegetarian. Is that of concern to the IFA and farmers?