Ms Niamh Farrell:

Senator Lombard mentioned pressure. I am definitely feeling the pressure with six weeks left in the pregnancy. It is well there at this stage. Senator Lombard mentioned generational renewal. I was one of the members of Macra na Feirme who went to agricultural colleges to speak about the Make the Moove project. There are young lads and ladies in this room who, when they were in their final year in agricultural college, did not know what succession meant. This is a major issue because there is no investment in succession plans or in young persons taking over the homestead.

In our case we not too bad. There was an understanding of what would happen and that it would happen fairly lively whether we liked it or not. My partner has taken over the farm. We are supposed to be moving into the farmhouse and a smaller house is supposed to be built for the person living there at present to suit his needs. However, he cannot get planning permission for that smaller house. We are renting a house ten minutes down the road. We are stuck in a small house with a newborn on the way while someone has to go over and back the road to milk cows twice at day. It is not ideal.

We put the plans in place ourselves. We have spoken about succession. It was all well and done but the Government and the local authority put roadblocks in our way. What more does the State want us, as younger people, to do? We have had these conversations and the holding has been passed over but we are not living on it because a lack of planning permission is stopping us from doing so. I am not sure what more we can bring to the table. We have ticked all of the boxes in terms of the conversation about succession and generation renewal. We have done our best but we are still being stopped.

I do not know what the Government or the local authority wants from us in this sense. We cannot go anywhere because it is our livelihood. I am working on the farm and he is working on the farm. We need to live there. We might have to sleep in the cubicles if the worst comes to the worst. We have tried to put all the plans in place and follow what is required but it is not going our way. I am not sure whether anybody else wants to take up the point.