Ms Hannah Quinn-Mulligan:

I thank both members for their questions. I will answer Senator Daly's question, and if Ms Crowley wants to answer Deputy Leddin's question, we can work it that way. On the Senator's first point, it is really heartening to see all the farming organisations coming together on this. When I reached out to people to form the group initially, the support I received from them was overwhelming. That was fantastic to see. Many of them were wondering themselves how they could go about doing what we are doing. I am not saying all were doing so but all of them gave a positive response. I am happy to say Irish Grain Growers has asked to be part of the group, and we are accepting its application at our next quarterly meeting. That would be a big deal for us. When we look at knowledge transfer scheme figures, we see that just 53 women in the entire scheme took part in the tillage section. That is not good enough and something we need to work on. I am very happy that ICOS has reached out and would also like to join the group. We are going to accept it too. Many people in the room might know that four out of the five major dairy processors do not have a single female farmer elected to their boards. In 2021, we have to ask if that is good enough in our most valuable indigenous industry, agriculture. I would say it is not.

While farm organisation support has been fantastic and the outpouring of support from women has been brilliant, the desired change will never happen without the support of men.

We have received support from men privately by email or Instagram and other social media, but it will not happen without the support of the members of the committee and it will not happen without the support of people in government. This is why it is fantastic to be invited here today to get our points across. Ultimately, this is not about making women superior, it is just about equality. It is about putting a temporary measure in place in the next Common Agricultural Policy cycle in Ireland that will help to level the playing field.

With regard to younger women, I love going to the National Ploughing Championships every year just to see how enthusiastic the young women are. I am a Hereford breeder, and I should not admit it but in the Angus competition the young women who come from non-farming backgrounds were just so enthusiastic about farming, it is really heartening to see. There are young women out there. It is devastating that fewer than 500 young women under the age of 35 received farm payments. When we put that figure on social media, a lot of them were unaware of that. This is why we got so much support from them. We have a generation of women now growing up who always considered themselves farmers. How do we translate this into actual farm ownership? I think it is a question of when you see it you can be it. If we see more women going to knowledge transfer events, if we see them becoming more involved in farming organisations, and if we see them being elected to the boards of co-ops, that is how we will do it. It is to be hoped some of the measures we are putting in place will ensure this happens.

I am not going to ignore Senator Daly's question about the name. I am aware I have a very long one myself, which I have inherited, and there are a couple of other women on here with very long names. It is a really important element. Places in Ireland are known as Ryan's farm or O'Donoghue's farm and that kind of thing. They are landmarks. It is 2021, however, and I promise that the worst thing that will happen with a double-barrelled name is that the children will just learn the alphabet that much faster. It is not a big deal anymore and it should not be considered a big deal anymore. If the name is that important, it can just be turned into a double-barrelled version or a woman can keep her maiden name in a marriage. It should not be the deal breaker at this stage. If the farmer in the family is a woman and she is the better farmer, then ideally the farm should go to her. That is it. I will pass over to Ms Crowley now for Deputy Leddin's question.