Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A startling set of statistics that was presented to the committee and which is available in the public domain in recent times tells its own story. According to the statistics, 42% of farms in the west of Ireland have closed in the past 20 years, the vast majority of which were small family farms. At European Union level, the European Court of Auditors found that 1,000 farms are lost every day across the EU. I had to recheck that to ensure it was correct. The European Court of Auditors also found that one third of farmers under the age of 44 have left farming in the past ten years in Ireland. That goes against all the stated policies of bringing younger people into farming and making it more productive. Under EU and Government policy over many years, we have moved to a more intensive and market-led form of farming that has driven huge numbers of small farming families off the land. It is estimated that 75% of many farmers' incomes comes from direct single farm payments at European level. Those single farm payments heavily favour large operators in the manner of their distribution. The policy framework at European and Government level has served to push us towards the intensification of farming and has driven smaller farmers off the land. We must have honesty on these issues. I would like to hear the views of all the witnesses on how that relates to the topic under discussion today.

A valid point made by one of the farming organisations is that the European Commission is currently negotiating the Mercosur trade agreement yet other branches of the European Commission are rightly pointing to the high contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gasses in Ireland. Agriculture contributes more than 30% of the total, which undoubtedly is very serious. On the one hand we are being told we must address that and will be fined if we do not and on the other, the Mercosur agreement is being negotiated, which will bring in huge amounts of beef and other products that do not have anywhere near the same environmental standards as such products from Ireland from countries that are destroying their forestry and rainforest left, right and centre. That dichotomy must be addressed and I would like to hear the witnesses' views in that regard. These are loaded questions and the witnesses can probably sense my views on the matters but I would like to hear their views.

Another point made by farming organisations that appeared before the committee is that Ireland has had an historically low level of industry and the contribution of agriculture to the overall level of greenhouse gasses here is, therefore, higher than one would find in other European Union countries. That is a fair point. They also argue that greenhouse gas emissions should be measured not alone where food is produced but also where it is consumed. If there is market-led demand for high-quality grass-fed Irish beef, responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions accruing from the production of the beef should be shared by the consumers and producers. That is a reasonable point and I ask the witnesses for their views in that regard.

I seek the views of the witnesses on the forthcoming Common Agricultural Policy framework. Some have already addressed that issue.

What are the witnesses' views on the current payment levels? There is an argument payments should be capped at €60,000 to ensure they are spread more evenly and we can reverse the statistic of 42% of family farms being lost in the west and so on. With the current European Union framework, do witnesses see contradictions in terms of the messaging of the trade negotiations versus greenhouse gas demands? How can we collectively address those issues at Irish and European level?