Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his points. The point about the 12-month duration of the prescription is new here as well. I was not aware that had not been discussed previously. It is back to the main point. The priority is to ensure whatever regulation passed here meets the regulatory requirements it needs to meet. We need to do that in a way that gives farmers the greatest choice and tries to protect our industries throughout rural areas. We need to secure our food production systems, on which our rural economy is so dependent, into the future. We need to ensure our livestock-based system, which is so important, has a strong and healthy future in the long term.