Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy did not have too many questions. He outlined his views on this matter. I will say on behalf of the Minister of State and the officials present that we are very well served by the officials we have. We have a very strong Civil Service. It is one of the very strong things about this country. It is our role before this committee, and as Minister and Minister of State, to provide leadership, oversight, legitimisation and public imprimatur. We are there providing leadership.

I outlined how we have taken the sector out of crisis over the past two and half years. It has not been me or the Minister of State that has done the dirty work on that. We provided the leadership and we drove it on. This is the team that has delivered it. It has been a very difficult space for them to be in. As I said, this emerged out of a court case in 2017 and the massive backlog envelope that arose from it, which was a very difficult situation to work our way out of. We are now in the situation where officials have drafted, with us, a new plan. We have put the funding in place to implement it. It will be very exciting to drive it on. We have now got it in good shape. It is now about going first on the front foot.

The Minister of State and I will have our tussles at times regarding what is possible and what can be done but overall, when we look at the Department across the board, as a country, and I speak for our Department, we pay more quickly and are more efficient than other country in Europe in how we engage with our farm families. That is down to our officials. That does not mean there will not be disagreements but it is important we respect that work, even though there will be healthy tension sometimes. It is important that we respect the work that officials do.