Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for one of the better submissions this committee has received in my time as a member, or in the past 12 months. I am especially happy to see three Limerick women here today. Obviously, Limerick is leading the way when it comes to women in farming.

I have one point to make with respect to the composition of this committee. Senator Boylan, who is present, is our only female member. This is a matter we should consider as a committee. There is no gender balance on the committee. We must be mindful, as we go forward, of trying to seek a balance. We have to hold our hands up and say we do not have a balance at the minute. By not having one, I do not believe we can address the issues our guests are talking about in the way we should.

My question has been covered by previous speakers. If we are to have more women in farming, we have to look to school-leavers and younger women in particular. In that context and in the context of CAP, I am interested in hearing from Ms Crowley, who is representing Macra na Feirme. My question has been asked and, perhaps, to some extent answered in the contributions by Ms Kiely O'Connor and Ms Quinn-Mulligan. We have heard repeatedly how difficult it is to get young people into farming. It seems it must be exponentially more difficult to get young women into farming. I would like to believe, in the context of CAP, that this is being examined seriously. I would like to hear more about that.