Mr. Cillian Lohan:

The perception that persists in some quarters that environmental issues are necessarily in conflict with farming issues, food production and progress in agricultural methods is outdated. It is not necessarily a choice between the environment and feeding the world. If anything, the long-term viability of the farming sector is dependent, as Deputy Ó Cuív observed, on the maintenance of a healthy environment. It is in this context that we are seeking a reversal of the cuts in second pillar funding. We will have no agricultural system unless we have clean land with healthy, biodiverse soil. That is the system which underpins everything. When we talk about sustainability and green issues, this is the context in which we are making our case.