Mr. Donal Sheehan:

I thank Senator Garvey for the questions. On what needs to change, from where I am coming, it is about education. Farmers need to be better educated with regard to the importance of the environment and what it can deliver. That has never been explained to farmers. When people do not understand something they struggle to try to come to terms with it and to make changes. When REPs was first introduced, it was a great scheme. Many alternative farmers saw it as an income supplement for farmers who, as described by them, were not serious farmers. That is still a problem. There is a cohort of farmers that believe the environment is not that important and that the job of producing food intensively is more important. We need to get the message out there that the environment is equally as important and that it is not possible to produce good food without a good environment. As I said, it is about education.

On the advisory service, it has struggled. Farmers were brought up and trained how to produce as efficiently as possible. That was the advice given to farmers. There is inevitably an environmental cost to that. That needs to change. The advisory service needs to send out the strong message that the environment is not just for non-intensive farmer and that it is more important than ever than intensive farmers have a story to tell. If we do not start looking after the environment consumers will, I fear, go elsewhere. I am totally dependent on consumers and I am always aware of that regardless of policy. If people do not want to drink milk, my business is in real trouble.