Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is a lot of questions. I am conscious that other members want to come in, so I am just going to make a few points. I am reading a book at the moment about the ideas, aspirations and objectives of Davitt's Land League, which contains so many of the reoccurring themes we are talking about. Last week we had the mushroom production sector in. I talked to those involved and told them get political. The next day I did three or four interviews with various journalists about it. What I meant was that it was about time we got political. It is great to see the farm organisations represented here because the harmony and the singing off the one hymn sheet does not always happen. Irish farm organisations need to get political and I say that loud and clear. For years they were highly organised, highly motivated, highly co-ordinated and the political establishment in Leinster House sat up and listened. They were a force to be reckoned with. They were a political organisation but somewhere in all of that, they become slightly watered down. I see in front of me today a resolve, a strength and the ability and capacity to mobilise a national campaign. That is when farm politics really matters and I would encourage the organisations to do that. I just want to say that at the outset. It is shocking in terms of communication but that in itself somewhat reflects on the political establishment, but that is the reality of it. It is terrible that no full cost-benefit analysis has yet been carried out on the impact on large and small scale agriculture and on rural populations. We hear so much about rural Ireland and the political commitment to rural communities but we have been talking about the water extraction Bill and about peat in horticulture, nursery stock, agriculture and in the mushroom sector again and now we are talking about this. In a matter of days and weeks we are talking about ongoing issues and challenges that are attacking both the livelihoods and sustainability of farm incomes but, more important, of agricultural communities. I do not need to lecture the organisations as they know this but I just want to let them know we are picking that up on this side.

I have read all the submissions and want to thank all the groups who made them. Six recurring or common themes kept jumping off the pages of all the submissions and they were as follows. There is a need for new funding outside of CAP. The lack of financing has been identified as a key failure in the EU meeting its 2020 biodiversity targets. The proposal lacks clear and long-term financial support for nature restoration with the majority of this expected to come from CAP funding itself, and there are some issues there. Restoration can only be achieved if it is not dependent on CAP budget and is funded through a dedicated financial mechanism for biodiversity and restoration. Long-term restoration requires long-term resources and not short-term measures, and I think we would all agree with that. It is necessary that restoration is funded through a dedicated financial mechanism.

What I am saying is that we hear loud and clear what is being said. The organisations should unite, mobilise and bring their cause to community halls up and down this country. Put the leverage on the politicians, on the political establishment and the main political parties, the tripartite coalition Government, that is in place. They will have to sit up and they will have to listen but, more important, they will be motivated politically to listen and to respond.