Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the presentation and I completely agree with the objective and the reality that young farmers are the new environmentalists. This has to be where we are going and for farming it is the only future. It is the only really viable future not just because we all rely on the environment, particularly farmers, but because of the prospect of reducing costs. It is about the prospect of having more diverse income streams, not just from a variety of crops and food income streams, which is one of the directions we need to go in, but also from agroforestry and tourism. I see it from the point of view of training a new generation of farmers coming in. Designing the new CAP around diverse and higher farming income and more environmentally sustainable farming is the only future for Irish farming. To be perfectly honest, the current system does not deliver. Do the witnesses believe the current system is working for young Irish farmers? There is terrible fear and people are told not to listen to the Green Party and not to change Irish farming, as if it is great, but only 7% of Irish farmers are under 35. It is a job where it helps to be young. Is the current system working?