Mr. Matthew McGreehan:

I will give a snippet of my experience. I am a social farmer in County Louth. The Deputy asked what farmers get out of it. Farmers get an awful lot out of it, the job satisfaction and everything, but we do get paid. It is about €80 per day per participant. The participants usually come out from about 10 o'clock in the morning to about 3.30 or 4 o'clock. Social farming can improve the viability of farms greatly. Obviously it is not for every farmer. A lot of farms in Ireland are very vulnerable, especially in the livestock sectors, and it can keep farms alive and important in the community. The job satisfaction the farmers get out of it is immense. They see the people coming every week and growing and see what they get out of it. It benefits the farmer's family as well. It keeps the farm alive, and keeps the farmer in the community during the day. Many social farmers might otherwise have to go to Dublin and join the rat race on a building site. It is keeping people in the community, keeping townlands alive. The training is very important as is the work that Leitrim Development Company does. Social farming is a good news story but we want to keep it that way. We do not want anything going wrong or any scandals or anything. All our courses that we do throughout the year, all our ongoing training, it is crucial that we keep it and the Leitrim Development Company can keep us on our toes and keep us reminded when we have to do a course or whatever.

Social farming is all about our well-being. You do not have to have a mental health problem to keep your well-being right. It is about connection and our progression as people. We have people coming out from RehabCare, people with learning disabilities who come out every week. They get great value out of it and are nearly part of the family at this stage. They come out every Wednesday.