Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Mr. Herlihy and wish him well in his term as chairman. I also welcome the chief executive officer, Professor Gerry Boyle. I have a few questions for Mr. Herlihy.

Following on what Deputy Cahill said about the climate change challenge and targets and the Food Wise 2025 targets, I am interested to hear about the juxtaposition of both of those targets and how Mr. Herlihy envisages the situation evolving.

In his presentation, Mr. Herlihy mentioned the difficulty in recruiting staff and the need to have additional flexibility and capacity to employ teaching staff as well. He also referred to the waiting lists within Teagasc for part-time students. That has been a particular issue for students in Donegal. There is an exceptional college in Ballyhaise and there are also part-time courses available in Donegal. Waiting lists are an issue in particular in the west and the north west. Teagasc must be empowered to recruit additional staff. Could Mr. Herlihy elaborate further on that? The committee should support the recruitment objective and should try to ensure that the waiting lists can be addressed in order that there would not be significant waiting times for young people who want to do a course and to get into farming.

Teagasc has had a role in monitoring the fodder crisis. The last month has been positive in that regard in terms of trying to address the gap. I am interested in hearing Mr. Herlihy's perspective on the winter ahead and Teagasc's position in terms of that particular challenge in the months ahead.

My final question relates to Teagasc's capacity in terms of advisory staff. A common theme coming from advisers is that in recent years they have been bogged down with the burden of assisting farmers with applications for various programmes, including the basic payment scheme, BPS, applications, returns and administration to the extent that many of them are under pressure in terms of being on the ground and offering advice to farmers. I am interested in hearing Mr. Herlihy's perspective in that regard because ultimately a lot of the engagement farmers have is with the advisers. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of private advisers.