Mr. Tadhg Buckley:

The Senator is absolutely correct in her analysis of the number of vulnerable farmers from an economic perspective. There are a couple of points to bear in mind within that. Those farmers are predominantly drystock farmers and they are farming in parts of the country where there is not a whole lot else going on from an economic perspective. They generate a huge amount of value in those rural economies. A study from 2013, I believe from University College Cork, showed that every €1 million in beef output generates about €2.11 million in the local economy, and supports some 16 jobs. We must bear in mind that while many of those farms are absolutely economically vulnerable, they play a significant role from the perspective of social sustainability. We need to keep these farms alive in rural Ireland because without them I am not sure what we have left in rural Ireland. When considering options needed by those farmers we need to show them options that are viable for them. Reference was made to the technological advancements side of things. In fact, the technology for achieving our full objectives is not there at the moment, but that is not to say that it will not be there in the latter half of the decade. While we are looking at reducing emissions, it does not always have to relate to the numbers. Decoupling the reduction in emissions from the numbers is an important point.

With regard to the economic vulnerability, it is very important to realise that a huge problem is the trend in retail food prices. Retail food prices fell in each of the past seven years up to this year. In the year just gone, prices rose by less than 1%. Bear in mind what inflation is running at currently. We hear a lot about consumers demanding more from a sustainability perspective, and we understand that, but there also needs to be a sustainability dividend within the value chain that is returned back to farmers. At the moment, the value chain is not delivering back to farmers at the primary level. We know that in Ireland the primary producer gets about 18% of the food value chain versus an EU average of 25%. This is a huge challenge for Irish farmers. It is a big part of the problem for economic sustainability of farmers. The food value chain in Ireland is not returning to the primary producer what it needs to return. I am aware that we are looking at the environmental side of things today, but these are all linked. Returning a sustainability dividend back to the farmer as part of the value chain is very important.