Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I totally agree. I spent four and a half hours last Wednesday with all of the national presidents of the farm organisations and some of their key officers, along with all of the members of my own team. I did a full four and a half hour session on CAP and climate change, dealing with these issues and where we are at the moment. I also made it very clear in terms of how we step forward that, obviously, the first starting point was getting the sectoral targets right and getting them set for Irish agriculture in a way that was appropriate to what the sector can deliver. I believe the range we have is ambitious but deliverable. It will enable Irish agriculture to continue to produce the food - the milk and meat proteins - that we produce but to do so in a way that reduces the overall footprint and, in the process, adds value to that product and profitability at farm level for those producing that product. Central to delivering those outcomes and those reductions in emissions is working with farmers to implement the various measures they can deliver and, in particular, working with farm leaders. All of us must show the leadership that is required to deliver all of that.

I fully believe that will make Irish agriculture stronger and that it will get stronger over the next decade. Any sector of the economy, or any national economy that is efficient from an emissions point of view and environmentally sustainable, can expect to do well in the next decade, and that is where Irish agriculture is at. By international comparisons, we are a very sustainable food producing nation, and that is something we will continue to develop and double down on over the next decade and, in doing so, we will become stronger as an agricultural producing nation and as an income generating sector, particularly for farm families.

Central to that is working with farm organisations. As I said, I spent a full afternoon with all of the national leaders last Wednesday. I have had ongoing engagement throughout the CAP process with all of the national leaderships of all the farm organisations. Obviously, that is something that has always happened within the CAP process and it happened again this time around. Of course, I have supplemented that by having public meetings in each and every county in the country and speaking directly to every farmer who wanted to speak to me as part of the process to further develop that. That has been in addition to the very significant ongoing engagement with the national farming organisations. Now that the county-by-county meetings have concluded, we will continue that engagement with all of the farm organisations at national level to conclude the process of finalising the CAP strategic plan, which, legally, has to be completed by the end of December and submitted to the Commission.