Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Professor Boyle and compliment him on his presentation. My first question relates to the goal of encouraging diversification of the rural economy and enhancing the quality of life in rural areas. Some of Teagasc's personnel were involved in the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, report last year. The sustainability of rural Ireland has become a topical issue in recent months for a number of reasons, although I believe it has been over-hyped to a large extent. Like me, Professor Boyle was in Belview last week. Jim Bergin made an interesting point about increased production in the Ballyragget area in Kilkenny. There are 79 farmers producing milk in that area and he said that the increase in the amount of milk produced in the next number of years would mean that €10 million extra - I am open to correction if that figure is not right - would be pumped into the local economy in that space of time. That is a huge amount of money. Is any work being done on how that money will be spread in the local economy or on what can be done to try to encourage more off-farm or outside the farm gate production, or on other issues in that regard?

This time last year there was a crisis in the beef industry and, rightly or wrongly, Teagasc received a certain amount of criticism for the advice it may or may not have given regarding bull beef. It was a major topic at the time. As everybody knows, when prices improve, last year is quickly forgotten. However, some people do not forget it. What has Teagasc done in the intervening period to educate people on that issue? Bull beef was the main issue this time last year, although I realise the debate moved on to the price of steers later, and it was suggested that Teagasc had advised farmers to go that route in the years prior to that. What is the current position? Does Teagasc envisage a role for bull beef in the future, or is it doing any work on that area at present?

There will be huge opportunities and challenges in the dairying industry in the next number of years. The main point made in Professor Boyle's presentation is that approximately 20 years ago, in 1995, the price of a litre of milk was 27 cent or 28 cent. Today, he predicts a similar price range. Unfortunately, however, the price of production has increased by 50% in those 20 years, which is not sustainable on those figures. In the same period of time we have seen the New Zealand and Northern Ireland experience. To return to Deputy Pringle's point regarding grass-rich production, from our information and following a recent visit we made to our colleagues in Stormont, when we discussed this issue, it appears that farmers in the North have moved away from grass-rich production and have started to concentrate on extra feeding, which is a huge cost.

Professor Boyle mentioned education, which is crucial. At a recent cow sale in Kilkenny, farmers were beating themselves up paying €2,500 to €3,000 for replacement cows. There is not much logic in that. I realise it will be very hard to manage that, but there must be some realism in the market as well. If people are going to pay that to try to increase numbers, there will be a very sad ending. There will be many tears. Somebody will be blamed, and it will not be the person who is spending the money on the day. It will be somebody else's fault. How to get around educating farmers on that point is crucial for the future.

On the New Zealand experience, there has been much talk about how farmers there have increased production by a huge amount in the last 20 years. They started at the point where we are now and they are now at a multiple of that. However, the picture is not so rosy there at present. There are animal welfare issues, and they have not increased their income. Obviously they have increased their production, but the profit per farm has not increased. That is a huge issue and we must learn from it. Is Teagasc referencing New Zealand with a view to putting structures in place to educate and inform our dairy farmers on what challenges might lie ahead by comparing where New Zealand is at present and where we are now as a starting point?

With regard to dairy farm numbers, when we joined the EU in 1973 there were approximately 166,000 dairy farmers in the country. At that time it was probably a romantic scene to be pushing the churn out to the edge of the road and so forth. It has since become an industry and a business. There are now approximately 18,000 dairy farmers. Does Teagasc envisage many of those being lost in the rationalisation over the next period of time as the industry tends to get bigger? Will the so-called inefficient dairy farmers be lost in the process?

I come back to the general point. In his presentation Professor Boyle talked about staff numbers. Will Teagasc get away from the form filling practices which have obviously taken up a lot of time in the case of single farm payments, GLAS, the AEOS, etc.? Will there be more emphasis on getting into the field and being more research based than on form filling?