Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to thank all of the speakers for coming here today. It has been very informative and helpful. I straddle two committees as well. I am also on the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, so I am familiar with many of the issues that the witnesses raised.

It is good to see, particularly in terms of what Teagasc presented, farmers are not being vilified. Too often, farmers are vilified and are the very incarnation of evil when it comes deprivation of water quality, but that is not the case. That is probably borne out in the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme, which is an excellent initiative. I have spoken to a number of farmers who have engaged with the programme and have found it hugely helpful. This is very much the route that we need to go down. We need to go down a consultative route. Farmers are the custodians of the land and are very much the custodians of the land and the environment. They are appreciative of, and are keen to play a part in, ensuring that we have very good water quality.

On engagement, I know some of the co-ops also have an advisory function. Is there cohesion between the Teagasc service and the co-ops? Are the groups communicating with each other or are we looking at two stand-alone functions? Perhaps a Teagasc representative could come back to me on that point first.