Mr. Damian McDonald:

I will just echo some of the comments made by Mr. Healy. The IFA has always been a staunchly European organisation. We supported the European Union and that remains the association's position. As most members of the committee know, however, there are frustrations with the European Union among farmers. It is important that they are not forgotten. The president has already outlined the situation in respect of Mercosur and the potential implications of Brexit and how the EU will respond to that. Commissioner Hogan has talked a lot about the simplification of the CAP. While it is critical, it has frustrated some farmers by bringing in a lot of red tape and bureaucracy, some of it perceived as unnecessary. A move to simplify it and make it easier for the participants would be very welcome.

Farmers are frustrated. There is the upcoming vote on glyphosate where the European scientific agencies are giving the green light to this product yet the political system is not responding to that. A decision has not yet been arrived at. It did not get through for ten years. A five-year approval was not passed. It is down to four years now and will go to appeal. That causes frustration for farmers as European citizens who say if we are not basing what we do on science where does that leave us. It raises questions such as if the European Union prohibits certain products, and there are plenty of those already, it does not seem to apply the same standards to products which are imported which can be used although they contain some products that are banned in the EU. It places them at a competitive advantage.

The IFA, like any association, is a democracy and I would not be aware of the background to the Lisbon treaty but it is important that Irish citizens' support, farmers included, for the EU, which has generally been very strong, is not taken for granted. That is a message the EU has to take on board. Our position has always been that we negotiate as an EU 27 and back the European position. We met Michel Barnier and we are very much part of that process.

However, if farmers are faced with a scenario where we have Brexit and the UK goes off and does its own thing and then we find the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, being eroded, our markets being eroded because agriculture becomes a sacrificial lamb in a trade deal with Mercosur, that is not a way to keep European citizens behind the EU project. It is important that the European Union delivers for farmers and all citizens if it is to continue to keep its support. The President made a point about Mercosur and the carbon impact of beef coming from Brazil versus the carbon impact of beef in Ireland. It can be two or four times the land use changes involved because a lot of rain forests are being felled in Brazil to turn them into pasture land. However, there are, at any point in time over the past number of years, between 6 and 7 million cattle in Ireland. There are 226 million cattle in Brazil. That is the scale and one can see how frustrated Irish farmers are when they see the emphasis being placed on methane output from 1 million cattle and the European Union going to facilitate a much less carbon-efficient beef production coming into the European Union from one country. There are 53 million more cattle in Argentina. The policies and decisions that the European Union makes have to make sense to farmers and the citizens.