Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Dooley has covered most of the points I wanted to raise. Regarding Professor FitzGerald's point about not becoming a farmer overnight and Deputy Dooley's point about a suckler farmer not becoming a forester overnight, how do we change that mentality so that a farmer wants to become a forester? I am not defending one way or the other. I agree with what Professor FitzGerald is saying. He talks about moving away from the suckler herd to afforestation, but at the same time, he mentions displacement of beef that has been produced efficiently, as he rightly noted, by imported beef from Brazil, where they are cutting down rain forests. How do we overcome that argument with the farmer, because an element of, to use an abrupt word, stubbornness kicks in at that stage? While farmers might see the logic in what Professor FitzGerald is saying and see the financial benefits, they will ask why they should be reducing their herds that have come to them from their fathers and grandfathers, because as Deputy Dooley noted, it is a tradition in families, when all this is happening across the globe. This is a global issue. If we solve our problems in Ireland, how much of a factor will it be in the overall picture? Regarding the point about a farmer not becoming a forester, he or she will have to, so how do we cajole him or her into making that change?