Mr. Eddie Punch:

The critical thing to start with is that all of our farming systems, including dairy, suckler, beef, sheep and tillage are interdependent. There needs to be more thought put into that reality; we do not see it in the way CAP has emerged as a series of payments and nor do we see it in where we are with climate change. The beef sector is critical to the sustainability of dairying and sucklers - without beef, you cannot have dairying or suckling. We are in favour of live exports of calves and older stock, but there are threats coming down the track. We must be cognisant of the need to have a viable beef finishing sector. We also have to look at this in terms of the climate action discussions under the beef vision group. The reality is that we have 1.6 million dairy cows and 875,000 suckler cows. In an ideal world, we would not see any significant drop in those numbers. We would like to see space for some people to even expand their enterprises and, overall, to try to keep our important €15.4 billion agri-export business up and running.

One of the things being discussed is how we can reduce emissions. A key idea put forward by the Department is reducing the average slaughter age. This is not a realistic proposition in light of current meal and cattle prices. Consideration must be given to that. There will have to be some type of package for beef finishers designed to improve viability but could also perhaps be linked to the climate change emissions target as well. We also have to look at the calibre of calves that beef finishers are being asked to rear. If we do not look at this in an integrated and holistic way, we are going to have serious difficulties with our climate targets and the viability of the beef finishing sector.

If there is no one to finish the calves, the suckler and dairy sectors will have an existential crisis coming down the tracks. We need a payment and it must come from somewhere outside the CAP. Initially we had proposed that some of the CAP money be directed to beef finishers but CAP is now allocated and, as Mr. Kelleher pointed out, massive cost was accepted by the Government. The cost of our entire climate action plan is €125 billion. Some of that is private money, some is Government money, some is old money and some is new money. It is clear we need an honest appraisal of how and from where we will get money to help farmers to deliver on these ambitious climate targets. Much of what is being discussed in the Food Vision beef and sheep group is highly problematic. We must start with money for beef finishers to finish earlier.