Mr. John Enright:

Senator Boyhan mentioned the green deal. We have farm-to-fork and biodiversity strategies. At the same time, we have an EU Commission that is proposing the Mercosur deal. On the one hand, the Commission wants to impose new restrictions on family farms in Ireland, France, etc., while, at the same time, it wants to import 100,000 tonnes of extra beef from Mercosur countries. It is important for us to call out these contradictions because we cannot have it both ways. The Commission is, to an extent, trying to have it both ways.

Mr. Cullinan mentioned sustainability, which has economic, social and environmental components. The complete focus of the Commission and our Government is on the environment. We understand the environmental challenges but there seems to be a complete absence of examining what is going on economically on farms and what is going on socially in rural areas. We must have an economic assessment of what these strategies are going to do to countries such as Ireland, France, etc. Those topics are conveniently ignored by the people who bring forward these strategies. The green deal is suggesting that we are going to put 25% of land into organic production. The reality is that if we do that, it will destroy the organic market for the people who are in it at the moment. It will turn it into a commodity. Many of these sorts of ideas seem great on paper but they will be a disaster from a farming perspective.

The Commission publishes all these strategies while, at the same time, cutting the CAP budget. To listen to some of these conversations, one would think that farmers are doing nothing for the environment at the moment. People tend to forget that we have had agri-environment schemes in this country since 1994. We have had cross-compliance since 1994. A considerable amount is being done on Irish farms regarding the environment and we are not getting the acknowledgement for it. We recognise the need for increased environmental ambition but we cannot expect farmers to pay for it all. If we, as a society, want increased environmental ambition, it comes at a cost. Sustainable food comes at a cost. One cannot expect farmers to bear that cost while they are getting the same prices they got 30 years ago. There are decisions to be made by politicians at both European and national level. If we want all this sustainability, the system is going to have to pay for it because we cannot expect farmers to pay for it.