Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives from Macra na Feirme. At the outset, I must say that it is disappointing that there are so few committee members here given that agriculture plays such a significant role in the context of climate change. Agriculture is also the largest indigenous industry in the country.

We have had a long meeting today and the session before this was mainly focused on communication. How should Macra na Feirme and similar organisations go about communicating the message on climate change within the sector? In my opinion, the BDGP is one of the best initiatives in the context of climate change but only 50% of farmers joined that scheme. How could we improve communications in the agriculture sector in order to increase the take up of schemes such as the BDGP?