Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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I would hope that the discussion might see more light than heat, although the witnesses have very strong views about what has happened. We would expect that the board of ICBF would have proper engagement with the witnesses and the other breeding organisations and that they would be heard out.

The issue of governance, and that the scheme would function properly and bring about results, is a legitimate question. When we hear about the new CAP or of agriculture in Europe, issues of climate change and environmental change go hand in hand. There is no getting away from a genomics type of scheme or the promotion of using genomic data within breeding in order to make a herd more efficient so that we do not have more animals that we need and that we get the returns from the herd, which is the objective.

I am interested to hear about what is going at the marts from Ms De Vere Hunt, who is at the coal face.

We often go to Teagasc in many fields but particularly when we want to know about sound science. What input has Teagasc had into this scheme or the programme that is before us? Has it a role to input, I would not go so far as to say to adjudicate, into the sort of scheme that would have desirable outcomes?