Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have a few questions. A farmer with a small amount of land who goes into organics receives a payment of approximately €600, while a farmer with 70 ha or 80 ha receives only €1,100 or €1,200. This puts off smaller farms. I would like the witnesses' views on that.

There is all this talk about getting €1 per kilo more for organic beef than for other beef. Mr. Renaghan mentioned that. Is it correct that there is actually no bonus involved in this? If we take out the 20 cent a farmer will get from rearing an animal in the conventional way, through the graze, and considering that it sometimes costs an organic farmer €40 or €50 to transport cattle because there is no choice, as was highlighted, it basically becomes unreasonable and unworkable to transport the cattle. Have options been looked at for exporting them on the hoof to places such as England for killing, as some other cattle go?

The Chairman might also respond to my next question. Lambs on a mountain in Mayo or Donegal are, in my view, organic. They are up on a hill the whole time. Is anything being done to try to get them in under the organic bracket?

Are the witnesses worried about the new scheme on straw? I am aware that criteria for producing organic state that the lying down area must be 50% slatted and the other 50% must be straw. Are the witnesses concerned that there has been a tilt towards dairy and tillage for organic? Off the top of my head, I believe there are some 1,700 or 1,800 people producing organic. We would get people into organics if we paid them the money. As was highlighted earlier, we would get people into organics if we looked at the schemes.

With regard to overheads, I would go higher than the 25% figure mentioned. If we taken the case of a farmer with 10 or 12 ha, of which there is one in my county, he or she will pay €600 to join an organic scheme. That cost and all the other bits involved meant it was a complete and utter waste of time. We have a Minister of State in the Department from the Green Party who is supposed to promote organic farming. It is a sad reflection on this country that we struggle to get rid of the produce.

Are organic lambs killed the same way as other lambs, or are they killed somewhere else? I am not aware if they are.

Have the witnesses met Bord Bia to see what markets it has? Lidl and Aldi, for example, have advertisements on RTÉ and TV3 stating everything is sourced in Ireland. We see images of a farmer walking around with a dog and cattle, and everything looks lovely. What is the story on the organic meat these supermarkets use? Are they buying anything here?