Mr. John Keane:

I thank members for their questions which I will try to deal with quickly. The Senator and Deputy mentioned the pressure on livestock and sheep numbers and the potential drop in cattle numbers. The reality of these proposals is that we will have higher numbers of farmers who are in derogation and subject to the regulations that go with derogation. The proposals mean that the amount of livestock that can be carried on an area is reduced. The natural result of that is that farmers will not be able to carry the livestock numbers that they have or had planned to grow to over a number of years. We have young farmers across sheep, livestock and dairy enterprises who have taken over businesses in the last few years, who are farming part-time now but who have an ambition to farm full-time in the next number of years. However, that is dependent on their ability to grow their enterprise in order to provide a viable income.

The expression "intensive farming" is one that farmers and farming representatives need to get away from. Irish farming in the context of world agriculture is not intensive farming. Certainly 4,000 cattle locked into 10 ha in Brazil and stuffed with hormones is intensive farming but ten sheep in the west of Ireland, three livestock in Cork or three cows in a field in Tipperary is not. That reality needs to hit home. These proposals, if implemented, will curtail the number of animals that a farmer can stock which will result in decreases in livestock numbers.

Senator Lombard and Deputy Michael Collins also mentioned the banding of cows. As we highlighted earlier, our concern around the banding of cows is that one particular type of system that farmers are using on farm - genetics which they have selected over a long number of years for specific production reasons, whether that be liquid milk supply contracts or their preferred choice of genetics - is going to be unduly affected. People should not be misled on this. Our economic breeding index, EBI, cow is what our system of genetic benefit has been built on over the past 20 years, since the relative breeding index, RBI, was built on from the year 2000. It has been around improving genetic performance based on EBI. A significant number of cows and herds throughout the country are based on this and are supplying over 6,500 l but will now be unduly penalised. The banding issue is going to need more time and considerably more consultation with farmers. What we are being offered right now is a consultation process but input from the affected farmers and farming organisations will be needed.

On the regulations, we would welcome grant-aid support. We have said, on behalf of young farmers, that the Commission's proposal on CAP of up to 80% is something we would welcome from our Government's point of view. However, the reality is that with the enforcement and the regulations that are proposed, farmers in derogation are unable to access grant-aid support for low emission slurry spreading because it is now a requirement under law. If the regulations relating to slurry storage capacity are brought in under law, farmers will not be able to access grant-aid support if they are not compliant at the time of the introduction of that law. It is going to place a huge financial burden on those farmers. We are talking about a lead-in time of two years but based on the supply from the low-emission slurry spreading, the waiting list of one year and considering how much storage would need to built on farms over the course of the next 24 months and the pressure that suppliers are already under in terms of materials and labour, it is going to be a huge challenge. I do not think the challenge can be met, based on these proposals, if farmers are to become compliant.

In the context of the EU as a whole and the cattle numbers that we have here, we must remain efficient and productive. We must continue, as Mr. McCormack said, to be leaders in terms of our productive efficiencies and consumer image. If one looks at the Brazilians and their proposals for expansion of their enterprises or the Australians and their proposals for expansion, one sees that they fell outside the Paris Agreement in 2015 and are unwilling to attend the COP 26 in Glasgow in November.

However, our Government is choosing to enforce these regulations on Irish farmers, who are among the most efficient in the world. We need to take a step back and see who we are promoting and representing. The pressures being placed on farmers to meet these regulations is significant. Consultation with young farmers in particular is needed because it is they who will be dealing with these regulations.