Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Everything has nearly been covered and nothing new will come up in this debate. Everybody knows the situation of the sector and of agriculture in general. I am a suckler farmer and the proceedings here have done nothing to lift my spirits. We are all solution driven but where are we going to get the solution?

The report is excellent in highlighting the difficulties with the sector. There is an elephant in the room and the contribution the sector makes to the rural community has been highlighted. My neighbours and I are sucker farmers because, as Deputy Penrose mentioned earlier, in the area I come from it is not possible to go into dairy or large-scale tillage. Suckler and sheep farming are the only two sectors to which the area is conducive. As has been pointed out in the report, the suckler herd is making a contribution in local, small, rural economies and creating jobs. In many cases the only thing sustaining the suckler farm is that the farmer holds one of those jobs on a part-time or full-time basis. The farmer's off-farm income sustains the enterprise. By the nature of the types of jobs these farmers are taking, it will be a double whammy, a perfect storm, if there is mass abandonment of the suckler herd in areas like those about which I am talking because those little part-time jobs are the first ones that will go. The people about whom we are talking will be hit on the double and that is a frightening scenario that is totally predictable if we cannot sustain the sector.

If there is a problem in any sector or walk of life, or inside the bubble here, one is directed towards the solution being education. On this one, however, a bit of PR and education could be part of the solution, leaving the fiscal answers, the €200 cow and the CAP aside. The sector is being damned when one talks about climate change. It is not being highlighted to the general public that we are an agricultural society. When one compares it to transport and power generation, we never had an industrial revolution in this country. It is getting negative press and people are promoting the notion that if we all went vegan, the problem would be solved notwithstanding the fact that we would still be driving around in diesel guzzling cars and lorries while flying across the world. Collectively in the political bubble and the representative bodies, we must try to get a sea change in the attitude.

We talk about premiums for our suckler beef, but 99 times out of 100, the housewife shops with her purse, not her eyes. Suckler calves, dairy calves and dry cows are going into the food chain and it is all being consumed. How well are we promoting things locally, nationally and internationally? While we all praise Bord Bia and the export markets, are there questions to be asked about how well issues are being promoted around the good carbon footprint and the high quality by virtue of the fact that it is grass-fed suckler beef? Is it getting the premium promotion it deserves? Until it is respected internationally and on the shelves in supermarkets, there cannot and probably will not be a premium. We might have to go back to basics to start promoting this product again. It might look like we are reversing the procedure but one might have to go back to the very basics. I do not have the answers and I do not know where they are going to come from but it might be something as basic as having to go back and readvertise, repromote and rehighlight the quality because it is not being highlighted enough. There could be a bubble out there. I do not like saying it but it might be ready to burst. What promotion have we done on this green grass-fed suckler beef? Where are the dairy calves going when they are fattened? Will someone realise at some point that people are not all getting what they think they are getting? I would like to hear some more opinion on that from the witnesses' side.