Mr. Seán Finan:

Senator Comiskey, Deputies Ferris and Deering spoke about the importance of education, which I will come back to shortly, but Senator Comiskey also referred to collaborative arrangements and the land mobility programme. The land mobility programme is delivering. We know there are more farmers over the age of 80 years than under the age of 35 years. This programme is addressing that issue and is encouraging more young blood into the industry by encouraging young farmers to become involved in different arrangements. The benefit is that the landowner retains ownership of his land while at the same time the young farmers get an opportunity to get into the industry and develop themselves within the industry. We also welcome the farm transfer partnerships proposal in the recent budget, which will have a major impact and will encourage more young blood into the industry.

The collaborative farming scheme which is part of the rural development programme is beneficial and has a very important role in the land mobility programme. Senator Comiskey also raised the question of access to finance, which is a significant issue and I call on the committee to help in ensuring the European Investment Bank funding, which the Commissioner speaks about, can be drawn down in Ireland. We are led to believe there is a mechanism for young farmers to draw down money at low interest rates and we would like the committee to focus on this issue which would help us as we will be working on it as well.

Macra na Feirme was founded in 1944 to give young farmers practical skills in agriculture. Thankfully the education system has evolved since then and the formal education system has developed. We are constantly in contact with Teagasc about coming up with ways of improving the current system for young farmers so that they can get the skills they require to develop their businesses.

I spoke earlier about a training needs analysis that we carried out earlier in the year. The analysis identified that young farmers wanted upskilling on the practical skills. Some three to five years after finishing their agriculture education, they realise they have a deficiency in particular skills and that is where our programme to try to deal with the practical skills comes in. The young farmers do not want to go into a classroom and sit down and take plenty of notes. They want to go on a course for a day and on the following morning implement the practices they have learned on their home farms. This is very important.

Teagasc is unique in that it combines research with its education and advisory service. That allows a knowledge transfer through the system, which is very important. We always encourage young farmers to upskill in agriculture. My colleague Mr. Bryan Hynes, a young dairy farmer will take us through the importance of focusing on the key drivers of profitability.

Deputy Deering also spoke about the price being paid for stores at present. I am a beef farmer and store cattle are dear. We encourage our young farmers to budget, which is critical, so as to ensure they know the cost of production. Young farmers need to be conscious of their budgets and what they can get out of their business.

I now hand over to Mr. Bryan Hynes, chairman of our agricultural affairs committee.