Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I thank Mr. Gleeson for his presentation.

I wanted to ask about the reduced budget, which is essentially guaranteed following the exit of the UK from the European Union. How will the Government advocate for us in terms of managing that shortfall? There will have to be forward planning, which would have been going on, I suppose, over the past couple of years in any case.

Is the Department taking the use of glyphosate into account in terms of the ongoing CAP negotiations? As part of our report on the tillage sector, we heard from Science Foundation Ireland that it did not think it would be possible for farming to continue at the current level without the use of glyphosate. What is the Department's position on that?

Food waste is a significant issue. Whether it be waste in supermarkets or waste on farm, for example, if supermarkets reject produce because it is not at a particular standard, how can that be addressed during the CAP negotiations?

With regard to changing our practices to take into account the need for biomass for renewable energies, we heard that there seems to be a reluctance from the farming sector to use what it would see as good land for the growth of trees. it would prefer to see it being used for food, yet we hear from the sector that wants to get biomass that it cannot get it here and has to import it. Is the Department examining this in some way or how will it approach that as part of the CAP negotiations? Is it an issue in other countries?