Ms Gillian Westbrook:

On behalf of the Irish Organic Association, I thank the committee for the invitation to be here today. I am sorry but I missed the first few minutes. Something went wrong with the system. It was going fine but then it suddenly crashed.

I take Deputy Collins's point. In encouraging farmers, a much more progressive common strategic plan is required to support organic farmers going forward. We understand there were issues in 2018, which was a targeted scheme, for farmers coming in. I must admit that it was targeted and agreed by the organic strategy group because there was a limited budget. The budget will underline many of our responses here today and financial supports will form a large part of it. In terms of how we move forward with this, we have a significant amount of ideas put forward. We have been very active, as members know, on our climate and Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, submissions, and development work, etc., that we try to do. The only thing we do not get involved in is sales. We used to book animals into the mart for all organic farmers in Ireland and that has stopped. Farmers book them in now. There are many more marts but perhaps still not sufficient numbers.

On the farmers who came into the scheme in 2018, as Deputy Collins said, many farmers did not get in. Some 63 farmers who managed to come in have stayed and of the 317 farmers who came in this year, one would have to deduct that. There were other farmers who did not get in but who had previously been in organics. Therefore, there were not 317 new farmers. It is trailing behind, and there is no nice way to say this. It is lagging behind, and it is a bit of an embarrassment in terms of the rest of the EU. Ireland should be a leader in organic production. We certainly agree with all the things, or at least most of them, the previous speakers mentioned.

In terms of the minimum stocking rate for hill farmers, etc., we do not set that rate. That is set by the Department and I am sure it will be happy to take members' questions on that. We will be happy to listen in on that as well.

As I said, minimum stocking rates is for the Department. I refer to a previous question on the commonage area and some of the barriers that were addressed. Farmers can use commonage, however, they do not get an organic farming payment from it because it is not under that control, even for hefted flocks, etc.

We would like to see a significant increase and we are happy to discuss that today. We have many ideas on how that can be done. Some of the previous speakers alluded to parts of that in terms of public procurement, proper promotion and some sort of cohesive strategy.

In terms of ambition, it seems that just a small amount of interest would be accepted more so than ambition. We would like to see a significant push. We think it is here and that it can be sold. It is a win-win situation in terms of its environmental and climate contribution. It answers the call for more product. Consumers are asking for more products and we need to deliver this. My colleague, Mr. Meredith, might like to come in on this.