Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I will begin with Dr. O'Mahony. Many of the observations in his opening statement were very powerful, but the most powerful line was: "The status quo, built on maximising production, cheap food policy and driving export demand for dairy and meat, is not working for rural Ireland or for biodiversity." That is a very important point. It is not said anywhere near enough. It is normally put forward in the public debate that, in effect, on the one hand, there is the interests of farmers, including large beef and dairy farmers and very small farmers and, on the other, there is the interests of the environment, biodiversity and so on. I agree with Dr. O'Mahony, however, that, in reality, the interests of small farmers and biodiversity should be aligned and public subsidies are creating perverse incentives. If he were Commissioner for Agriculture, how would he redesign CAP, in broad strokes? A big part of what we are discussing is shifting away from incentivising a form of agriculture that is unsustainable from the point of view of small farmers and the environment, and towards a different model of agriculture.