Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the guests. It is great to see such fine young people involved in education and agriculture. It shows that the future is bright for Ireland. I have just a few questions. My questions will be more parochial than those asked by others.

First, we need to have a debate in this country about carbon and safe food. We always blame the farmers, give out about the farmers and criticise the farmers. I never hear them being defended. The world has never been as unsafe and we have never had as many wars in the world. We have great-quality, safe food in this country, and farmers are never really defended by the education sector. I hear professors with roles opposite to the witnesses' roles in agriculture. They are the favourite pets of RTÉ. RTÉ rolls out the same old ones all the time. It is a bit like mad cow disease and the cow they used to roll out all the time. It is the same with the professors. The same ones are rolled out all the time. They are anti-farmer and anti-rural Ireland. The time has come for the witnesses to start defending and saying that they know there is a debate about carbon and safe food and that we need to have that debate loud and clear. What can the witnesses do about that debate?

Another question I wish to ask is about staffing in the Teagasc offices. It has been an issue over the past few years. Farmers want assistance, offices have been closing over recent years and we need more staff because the Teagasc offices around the country do a good job. They are helpful to farmers, and farmers need them.

Another question I wish to ask all the witnesses is whether they have debates with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Europe about some of the regulations being brought in. The witnesses have to educate farmers as to how these rules and regulations are being brought in. Sometimes it is easier to put them down in writing than it is to implement them on the farm. Are the witnesses doing anything about that?

Further, are they looking now at the education end of this as regards weather events? What can be done to support and help farmers? We have a changing climate. There is no question about that. What can be done as regards farmers? In many years gone by we used to have winters and summers. Now we do not know whether we have winter or summer. What are the witnesses doing about that? Are they looking at it? Can anything be done to help farmers to get into other crops to assist them in other ways of farming?

Finally, as regards Irish students, are the witnesses all happy or do we need more people coming into agriculture? We hear daily the number of people leaving, and it is getting worrying because life is being made so difficult by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and by European rules and regulations. Many farmers want to stay in farming and to work in it but they find it difficult with the rules and regulations. The witnesses are all from the education sector. One would nearly need a professor with every farmer now to be able to deal with the kind of paperwork being thrown on them daily.

Those are my questions for now.