Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No apologies have been received. I remind members that in the context of the current Covid-19 restrictions only the Chair and staff are present in the committee room and all members must join remotely from elsewhere in the parliamentary precincts. The secretariat can issue invitations to join the meeting on MS Teams. Members may not participate in the meeting from outside the parliamentary precincts. I ask members please to mute their microphones when they are not making a contribution and to use the raise hand function when they want to indicate. Please note that messages sent in the meeting chat are visible to all participants. Speaking slots will be prioritised for members of the committee.

The agenda for today is organic farming. Today's meeting is in two sessions. The first session is engagement with representatives of the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, INHFA. This will be followed by engagement with representatives of the Irish Organic Association and the Organic Growers Ireland.

From the IFA I welcome Mr. Nigel Renaghan, organic project team chair and Ms Niamh Brennan, organic policy executive. From the INHFA I welcome Mr. Joe Condon and Mr. Henry O'Donnell, who are national council members. Mr. Renaghan, Ms Brennan and Mr. Condon are joining remotely and Mr. O'Donnell is joining from a witness room in Kildare House. They are very welcome to the meeting.

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

Before we begin I have an important notice on parliamentary privilege. Witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give to the committee. However, if they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to do so, 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 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 of the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protection afforded to those participating from within the parliamentary precincts does not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether, or the extent to which, participation is covered by the absolute privilege of a statutory nature. I now invite questions from members.