Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the new chairman of Teagasc and his chief executive. The greatest challenge facing us at the moment is climate change, the targets and restrictions it will impose on us and how as an industry we are going to be able to adapt to them. I would like the chairman to give an outline of Teagasc's plans. The sustainability of food production is going to be the by-word for the next decade. We see already that some of our continental colleagues are having quota restrictions put on them as regards production of phosphorous. It is definitely a new quota being placed on them and it has implications for us on the pig industry side and particularly on the dairy side. On the staff side of things, is a recruitment embargo still in place within Teagasc?

Three to four years have passed since the abolition of quotas. As Mr. Herlihy showed in his slide, production has expanded rapidly. Unfortunately I do not think the profit has marched with it but that is an argument for another forum. Our green image is paramount to our sales in all our sectors. We have to be careful with expansion that we do not lose that green image.

Senator Lombard referred to discussion groups. I spoke to a discussion group a couple of weeks ago and by the time 10 p.m. came they were virtually all asleep in their chairs. Just three or four years after the abolition of quotas, burnout is becoming an issue with dairy farmers. There are labour shortages and pressures on the profitability of the sector and on cashflow. Even the availability of qualified labour is an issue. We were always told about New Zealand and the burnout that dairy farmers experienced there. I see in my own locality that young fellows are going to become old men very fast and it is going to be a huge issue. When I was wearing another hat, we talked about what was the most appropriate and economical herd size for a one-man unit, how many cows he could milk. In my view that figure has shot upwards. We are at the stage where he might have the number of cows he needs to make a viable income but whether it is the amount of work he can do is a different equation. What are Teagasc's views on the optimum number of cows a one-man unit could handle and that should deliver a reasonable income for him?

The bioeconomy links into climate change and the research that has been done there. What is Teagasc's input in that area? The committee visited Professor Kevin O'Connor and his colleagues in UCD last June. There is very valuable research going on there. There was an open day in Lisheen last Friday and great strides are being made in that area on making food more sustainable. Is Teagasc feeding into that research? Has it an input into it? I was often in the research centre in Moorepark and saw the great work that was done there in developing products for the market. I have not been there for a number of years but I presume that work is going on apace. Is Teagasc linked into the bioeconomy and that faculty in UCD?

Deputy Penrose asked how many of the young farmers Teagasc is training are going back to family farms. There are issues regarding the availability of land for younger farmers and their ability to get access to it.

We have many different schemes in place but larger units of land are being leased and that is making it untenable for younger farmers to take out land as they are unable to compete with larger commercial outfits. We can have the best educated young farmers but if we do not do something to give younger farmers access and availability to land, they will not achieve their potential. That is certainly an issue in my part of the country where land lease prices have shot up and land is being leased in increasingly larger blocks, which is making it more difficult and in some cases virtually impossible for young farmers to get started.

Another issue of concern is the attitude of the banks and the availability of credit. Those who do not need it are able to get access to low-cost credit while the man who is starting off and needs a helping hand might get credit but he gets it at a very high cost, which puts a significant burden on his investment. Do the witnesses from Teagasc have a view on what we should do in terms of access to land and access to credit for younger farmers?