Mr. Brian Rushe:

It is a fair question. I suppose any measure to reduce emissions at farm level, whatever it may take, must involve bringing the farmer and the community on a journey with them. I hate the term "national herd" because there are more than 130,000 farmers in Ireland and nearly 100,000 of them have cattle. There are 100,000 family farm units and they vary in scale depending on where in the country they are, whether they are full time or part time. It is so diverse and the national herd is a blunt term. In measures to reduce emissions, climate change and any of the environmental impacts farming might have, it is so important the community is brought along. Talk about cutting the national herd will not work. All it does is create division in this debate, which is what we need to get away from. The answer to Deputy Whitmore's question, and I am not sure she will be satisfied with it, any policy decisions in the future must be just and fair, they must engage and bring farmers with them, and it has to be a farmers' decision. That is what I would say, if they are to be successful.

We talk about income. Irish farming is small scale. That is one of the issues we have regarding our income size, because in other parts of the world where there was no government support, farms just grew in scale, for instance, the scale of operations in America and South America. Ireland does not have that because Ireland, through the EU, valued the family farm model. That supported farmers. When the market did not deliver an income, the State or the EU delivered an income because we value the family farm structure. We need to continue to value that. It is so very important. I will reiterate what I stated previously. There are changes happening on farm. We are not immune to change and farmers are engaged in it. I suppose that is the message for the Deputy there.