Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. In regard to the previous committee's report, which made many very good suggestions, it is disappointing there has not been action on the part of the Department to follow through on those. Arising from this meeting, it will be important that we seek an update in regard to each of those points, as well as an action plan from the Department regarding how it might move forward.

I would like to follow up on a few points, although they may already have been covered. With regard to the various market sectors, can the witnesses provide feedback on the success or otherwise of the various products and how much of the food that is being produced organically is being sold as organic produce? Across beef, sheep, dairy, pigs and the various other sectors, are some areas working better than others?

On the point about how GLAS plays out with regard to payments vis-à-visorganic farming, it defies logic that it is working that way and it acts as a total disincentive. For those farmers who are farming organically, can the witnesses give feedback in terms of what is driving those in the sector at present?

It seems to be a particularly frustrating enterprise in the sense that people put the effort into growing it and trying to develop and expand the sector, yet in terms of the premium available, it does not seem to be coming back. Much of the product is not sold as organic. What are the positives or is it an uphill struggle? What is the mood like among the delegate' colleagues in the organic sector?

Austria has been mentioned a couple of times and was mentioned in the report of the committee as being the best in Europe, with a figure of 15% for organic production. Will the delegates give us an insight into why the system is working so well there and what Austria is doing so differently that has made it work?