Mr. Breian Carroll:

Deputy Healy-Rae asked about succession. There are various reasons and our colleague in the ICSA referenced it. There are many other attractions in the economy and perhaps easier work. I take a personal interest in farm succession. We had an EIP in it and much of what came out of it was there is a serious threat to the next generation taking over. The lack of a sustained income over a long period is one of the factors, as well as the lifestyle choices. It is not just happening on the lower-income farms; it is an issue on good, viable dairy farms. There are lifestyle choice involved in getting someone to work seven days a week. The economy is creating attraction for those people also, even on a part-time basis. We have to be careful that we do not regulate farmers out of existence. Of course there has to be deterrents but there has to be a balance to try to attract the next generation into farming.

In response to Senator Murphy’s direct question, no, we do not have any communications with An Taisce. That was the Senator’s direct question.

Responding to Senator Dolan’s question, yes, on the wider climate on all of that, we see severe pressures in different parts of the country on the storage system over the winter period. Farmers are trying to balance that. One suggestion is the following. As I said earlier, if I go to a farm next week, we are more or less telling the farmer it could be eight or nine months, on a positive side, before they can initiate their progress. We must reflect on the fact that almost €400 million was spent by farmers in TAMS 2. Farmers think TAMS is a fantastic scheme. They are willing to spend despite the income challenges we talked about. They need to see a future over the next few years for that. Where an additional facility has been added to an existing farmyard, we should look at a way of fast-tracking those, notwithstanding that they have to justify it being able to meet other environmental regulations. Currently a farmer is probably waiting up to nine months. With regard to any farms we have been on in the past couple weeks, we are basically telling those farmers it will be 2025 before they can start any projects.