Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Organic Farming: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Maybe the Dáil record should be corrected then. In response to a parliamentary question on 28 April, the Minister indicated €5 million was allocated to this.

Senator Daly said he did not want to be critical, but I do. If organic farming is done right, it can deliver for farmers, consumers and the environment. It is not good enough simply to say these are legacy issues. The Department has shown in the past that when it puts its mind to it, it can deliver quite an expansion. The dairy sector is an example. We will all recall, when we were approaching the period when quotas were being abolished and in the immediate period afterwards, the series of farmer engagements, publicity, ploughing matches and the overall push. One would swear we were talking about white gold. In Leinster and Munster, there was effectively a doubling of cow numbers, while over the same period there was an increase in the level of organic farming from 1% to 2%. If the intention is there and there is ambition in the Department, we can deliver a result well beyond the 7.5%. Our guests might confirm, as has been referenced a number times, that our target amounts to the EU average of 7.5%. Do they accept that that EU average was a 2018 figure, whereas the 2019 figure was 8.5% and the EU average is probably higher again for 2020 and 2021?

Why are cattle prices for organic farmers not published weekly, as those for conventional cattle are? Are there any proposals to reduce the volume of paperwork and bureaucracy that organic farmers have to endure, even to dehorn a calf, in their annual return forms? Is there a proposal that might undo some of that bureaucratic entanglement in which many farmers find themselves?

When representatives of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, INHFA, appeared before the committee last week, we mentioned that there was a particular challenge with regard to the minimum stocking rates of 0.5 livestock units to participate, which contravenes some of the requirements relating to areas of natural constraint, ANC, among other requirements. What proposals does the Department have to undo those rates and allow farmers who may be already organic to participate in the scheme?

Finally, what proposals does it have to allow commonage to be included in the organic scheme? Again, I refer to land that is organic in most instances, in any event.

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