Professor John Sweeney:

On the Senator's point about engaging with farmers, it is important to note that we do. An Taisce is on the point of producing a booklet, for which we have engaged with ten farmers and asked them about their experiences of moving to an organic agricultural system. We have received very positive replies from all of them. They are doing very well and are making good money out of a switch to organic and they have been encouraged by Government policy to do that.

I take the Senator's point that it is very important to engage at grassroots level with farmers and we will continue to do so but our prime mission is to protect the Irish environment and that will be what will underpin any policies that we adopt going forward. We recognise that the derogation has been a comparative advantage to Irish farmers over the years, of which other countries in Europe are probably jealous. We recognise also that it will be very hard to maintain that in the years to come. We are conscious of the need to protect the family farm in Ireland, albeit not necessarily the 1,000-cow farm in dairy farming. The family farm will, however, be integral all the way into the future in Ireland. We are conscious of that and we hope that by communicating with family farmers, they will trust that what we are trying to do is beneficial for Irish society as a whole.