Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the short supply chains, I know it sounds kitsch and romantic, but I think we are missing a trick with farmers' markets. There are not many farmers at most farmers' markets. There are lots of other cool things. The Minister talked about short supply chains. That is the whole problem. When there is a monopoly on slaughtering, it rules out a lot of the possibilities. The most sustainable thing we can do is to buy local meat, milk and spuds. Unfortunately, there are huge barriers to doing that. John Vaughan of Moo'ghna Milk is bringing 50 cows of milk to three villages, but it nearly broke him to get there because of the over-inspections and the heavy emphasis on health and safety to the Nth degree. It sounds romantic, but at the end of the day, if we want to be sustainable as an island, looking at the climate and biodiversity emergencies, people should be able to go and buy local products that are affordable. If we cut out all these middlemen, it would be affordable. That is how John Vaughan can do what he is doing. We can pay him for the milk. I could not buy a litre of Clare milk until he started doing this. There is something wrong with that. If we are genuinely talking about sustainability, farmers' markets should be places where farmers are able to sell their meat and vegetables, and are supported in that rather than battling with the local authority for a bit of space because they want it all for cars and stuff. There are huge issues there. The Department should be driving farmers' markets if it is genuinely concerned about and committed to sustainability.