Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can understand the frustration of Deputy Murphy. We have been presented with an urgent need for transformational change which the citizens' assembly has said needs to happen. We see plans being refreshed and renewed. It does not sound like the urgent shift that needs to happen will happen.

Could Mr. Callanan indicate what a prosperous farm will look like in ten years' time? How much revenue will come from environmental services, managing the biodiversity loss we are confronted with in this report? That seems to be the key. With regard to their short-term interests, farmers feel they are being attacked on all sides by demands, They do not see a path forward. The Department is primarily responsible for showing that a path exists and that there will be genuine income and prosperous farming at the end of the environmental transformation.

I worry that too much of current agricultural policy is presented very narrowly to manage the immediate challenges and does not have a longer term perspective on the basis of which we could bring people with us. That is the fundamental question. The assembly tells us that enforcement is failing, we have no clear targets, we have not recognised the different land-use objectives, there are institutional failings, there is no soil science centre, we need a new water body and we need the Oireachtas to change its approach. This is really big stuff. The assembly is talking about giving nature a constitutional right which could dramatically change the operational environment in which people work. I do not get the vibe that there is a transformational programme coming into place here. I do see ad hocimprovements to schemes, which I welcome.

We are on the third water plan. The first two have failed if we are continuing to see a deterioration. Do we really have in the new plan a radical shift that will mean co-ordination of the various elements and enforcement, which have failed in the past? In the presentation made to me, ten new things did not jump out at me that will be completely different from those in the two failed plans and dramatically shift the environment within which we are working. It is that level of urgency that the assembly is presenting us with. Working on all the recommendations does not seem to be enough; we need to illustrate the big shifts happening in the two sectors.