Dr. David Meredith:

I will pick up on a couple of issues and link one or two questions and statements that were made.

Senator Boyhan mentioned the issue of TB as a key stressor, and Senator Daly asked a question about how we access farmers and hard-to-reach farmers outside of the representative organisations and Teagasc services. This is where engaging with others becomes very important. It is about involving vets in training programmes involving inspectors who are going out, from a range of different organisations, not just the Department, to work on farms with farmers to provide them with the skills and enable them to develop those skills through On Feirm Ground.

Deputy Fitzmaurice asked whether there is a dedicated section within Teagasc working in this area. We have developed a dedicated research strand within the rural economy programme. I am the head of department for the agrifood business and spatial analysis unit. We have a dedicated research section within that, which comprises a number of researchers working on this issue. We collaborate very closely with our advisory and education colleagues in order to integrate the services we are developing into the day-to-day interactions we have with farmers. That is really important. We do not want to single out people or stigmatise mental health in any way. We want to integrate the supports we are providing into our day-to-day contacts with farmers.