Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Professor Pierce wants to come in.

On the education piece and the connection between young school children and farming, the gap gets bigger all of the time. Professor O'Mara mentioned the fact that we all have a role to play in this. We have a very strong connection with the Irish Agricultural Science Teachers Association, IASTA. Its annual conference is at Lyons Farm on 18 November. That association has massive reach with students of agricultural science, many of whom are not from farming backgrounds. That is an important link. We can do a certain amount ourselves but we can extend our reach by working with the likes of the agricultural science teachers.

I am on the board of Agri Aware, as is Dr. Butler, and that organisation has a really important role in this area too. We work very closely with Agri Aware. We share a marquee at the ploughing championships. We invite students to the farm for Agri Aware Farm Walk and Talk events, when there would be two days of up to 700 school kids coming on the farm and seeing all sorts of things, like lambing with Professor Boland, milking and so on. We are really aware of it and while as individual organisations there is only so much we can do, by working together with IASTA and with the career guidance teachers, we can try to extend the reach.

I absolutely appreciate the point the Deputy makes about the understanding of where food comes from and of agriculture and the importance of lessons with each generation.