Mr. Seán McCabe:

The agriculture question is critical. I hear what Deputy Durkan is saying but I would also say that the specific words he used were "the agri industry". I fully understand the value the agri industry contributed post-recession but I also know that in terms of income, farming is the most unequal sector in our country and that is inexcusable. We have some bad faith actors operating in the sector who are making it sound like farming is on the chopping board if we take climate action. It is the complete opposite.

I travelled around this country in a van, slept in it and met as many farmers and fishermen as I could over a six-week period back in autumn 2019 when the fodder crisis was still fresh in people's memories and the farmers knew that this would bring back the hunger in the long run. We have to be on the side of the farm and we have to act in such a way that we recognise the power imbalance that exists between the farmers, the middlemen and the multiples that are putting inordinate pressure on our farmers to produce at remarkably low value. The Deputy is right that it is incredibly high quality produce but they are being paid nothing for it and instead we are importing vegetables. We have growers in north County Dublin going out of business and we are importing vegetables that are grown by what are basically indentured servants in the south of Spain. That is unacceptable.

We have to consider our food system and model. The idea that we are going to persist over the next 15 years in exporting powdered milk to Vietnam is insane. That business is not going to be viable in the long run. If we pin our farmer's hopes on that, it is they who will suffer.