Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The topic of our second session today is the proposed amendments to the good agricultural and environmental conditions 2, GAEC 2. I welcome the representatives of Macra na Feirme: Mr. Tom Duffy, national president; Mr. John Keane, president-elect; Mr. Derrie Dillon, head of policy; Ms Gillian Richardson, policy officer; and Mr. Shane Fitzgerald, chairman of the agricultural affairs committee. Mr. Duffy is coming to the end of his term as president of Macra na Feirme. It has been two years well served representing the organisation and the young farmers of Ireland. I wish Mr. Keane the best of luck in his incoming two years as president. He is following in a good family tradition of lobbying and fighting for the cause of farmers. I wish Mr. Duffy and Mr. Keane the best of luck in their future endeavours.

We have received Mr. Duffy's opening statement, which has been circulated to members. We are limited in our time due to Covid-19 safety restrictions and the committee has agreed that the opening statement is to be taken as read so that we can use the full session for questions and answers. All opening statements are published on the Oireachtas website and are publicly available.

I have an important notice regarding parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Participants in the committee meeting from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protections afforded to those participating within the parliamentary precincts do not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether, or the extent to which, their participation is covered by the absolute privilege of a statutory nature.

I invite members to ask questions of the Macra na Feirme delegation. As I stated, our guests are most welcome.