Mr. Charles Stanley-Smith:

As I said, I live in rural County Tipperary. As such, I am aware of many of the problems of rural life in the county. Because I am a member of the local area Leader committee I am also aware that people are very good at actually coming up with ways and means to help themselves and innovative solutions if given the funding. I will not discuss the Leader projects because the programme suffered many problems in the start-up phase, but it is now beginning to get in swing. There are people, including farmers, who, if given sufficient help through the Leader programme, are quite able to start up new businesses in the locality.

Senator Michelle Mulherin referred to freshwater pearl mussels. One of the issues at which we have to look is the failure to meet the terms of the water framework directive, for which we are facing severe fines. The freshwater pearl mussel is an indicator of the purity of water. Currently, high status water levels are very low. The idea that we ensure freshwater pearl mussels are protected helps us to ensure we will meet the water framework directive targets.

On food security and exports, Food Wise 2025 came from Food Harvest 2020 which was an industry driven project which the Government expanded into Food Harvest 2025. We have mentioned that it is up to the Government to work out whether agricultural production should be increased to export products. In order to be able to export, we need to increase the number of cattle. Unfortunately, increasing the number of cattle increases the level of greenhouse gases. We make the point that it is up to the Government to make a decision on whether it is better for the country to increase the amount of agricultural exports knowing that it will increase the level of carbon emissions. This is a decision the Government and Parliament will have to make.