Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

From what I picked up, a big family seems to be examining all of this. I have raised waste issues and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has been considering them for the past two and a half or three years and it does not seem to be bothered about them. It appears the EPA will be the guiding light for Ireland on nearly everything but no results have emerged on most of the issues with which it is dealing. Does Teagasc have to feed the information on this to the EPA? I note the EPA, the Departments of Health and Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department with responsibility for climate action will be involved. Off the top of my head, I noted five different parties would be involved. It is hard to get the family to sit down on many an occasion to discuss an issue but if we are trying to get five different crowds to sit down, it is no wonder there is frustration about moving things on and trying to get results.

I spoke to Dr. O'Mara and I note Teagasc is doing research on different areas. Has Teagasc been appointed to do the research on X, Y or Z and report back? Who is making the call on all of this or doing the research? I presume it is under licence when there is a European programme or that a few countries would do it to find out what the results would be in different climates and soils. I am trying to find out who is feeding the information to whom. There are five different groups involved. It is similar to our discussion on hemp growing last week when we seemed to be going around in circles. Is there a cohesive way to feed information into the middle in such a way that we would get a decision to confirm it is good?

I could not believe what I heard Deputy Carthy say. Am I correct in believing that genetically modified soya can be imported on the basis that it is a sound product and would not do harm in the food chain but we cannot grow the same crop here? Did I hear that right? Is Europe such a bureaucracy that this is what we are now facing? I heard about the VAT issue this morning but every time the committee meets, we hear something else about Europe.