Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses and apologise for the fact that we had votes at the start in case I repeat anything. I have a couple of things to say and maybe everybody will comment and give me their opinions. I know grain is, far and away, the biggest tillage product but there is a tillage crisis. Are there options for diversification in other crops? I hear people saying we should be growing more oilseed rape or whatever. Is there a potential diversification away from grain, not wholly but partially? There has been a lot of talk here about Exchequer funding. I would like to hear exactly where and how the witnesses would target it.

Where I am from, it is still a mixed farming model. We grow a bit of barley for a bit of straw, feed our own grain and have sucklers or whatever. We are inputting into the tillage output, even at a very small scale. I do not know what kind of support those kinds of farmers would need. It needs to be pro rata. There is the same pressure on land up our way. There was talk about whiskey. It is totally farcical. There is a review of the PGI of whiskey and submissions need to be put in. We have a PGI for Irish grass-feed beef, which are fed grain in winter. Is GM grain going into Irish grass-fed beef, Irish whiskey or Irish bread?

During Covid, there was a lot of talk about Irish wheat not being up to milling quality. Is that true or false? How can it be? There is a lot of talk about GM. I am totally opposed to it, but I am a fan of gene editing. Where are the witnesses on gene editing? We need to bring our crops up to speed. The witnesses would save money on sprays, maybe even fertilisers, if we could gene-edit some more varieties of crops. Where are the witnesses on that? I know discussion is happening in Europe.

The Department and Teagasc come before this committee. If the witnesses were in my chair when they come in, what would they say? We will also have a Private Members' Bill in the Seanad and the Minister will be in. If they were taking that on my behalf, what would they say to him?