Ms Niamh Brennan:

I work with the IFA as the executive secretary to the organic project team. To address some of the Senator's point, we 100% agree. We are used to hearing all of these figures thrown at us in Europe and at meetings of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations, COPA. Unfortunately, we are at 2.6%. We are well below Australia, Estonia, Sweden and the likes, which exceed 20%. The programme for Government sets a target of 7.5% but there is a target of 25% in the agrifood strategy and the farm to fork document. What is the difference between A and B? What are the challenges? We in the IFA are clear that any increase in production must be market-driven. One cannot put stuff in the marketplace for which there is no market. That is our number one priority.

Of course, we are not here to reinvent the wheel either. An organics strategy development group was set up and established in 2018. We have big issues with that. It produced an excellent document. It brings together Teagasc, Bord Bia and all of the other stakeholders and sets out different aims. If these had been progressed, we would not be having this meeting today. We would have advanced much further than the current 2.6%. We have had two seats on that group since 2018 and, since then, that group has only met on one occasion, in March. This followed repeated requests from the IFA for the group to meet. We recently sent a letter outlining that the tillage and dairy farming sectors are not represented on this group, which is something we want addressed immediately. We want action points from each one of these meetings. There are some updates on the website but they are in the form of presentations and it is very hard to gather any hard facts from them. That is one thing on which we are strong. Everything we need is within that strategy group. A lot of work went into it. If that was fulfilled and progressed, we would be further along than we are.

I will address some of the other problems quickly. It was great that the organic farms scheme reopened but another major issue with the latest reopening, in which there were 317 applicants for a potential 400 or 500 places from the funding of €4 million, was that it was run in parallel with the results based environment agri pilot programme, REAP. Farmers in the IFA were contacting us and wondering what they should do. It is clear that there is not enough technical advice for farmers as to what direction to take. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. There was a higher payment per hectare for REAP but they may have been set on the organics up to that point. If there are two payments side by side and one is higher, that will make up a lot of people's minds as to what direction they will take. Since the scheme has closed, we have had farmers on to us saying that they would have went for it and that they are disappointed with the choice they made. Perhaps advisers in the sector were driving them towards the higher payment. That is the reality. We are clear that we want the organic farms scheme reopened immediately to allow the rest of the funds to be drawn down and to allow more farmers in.

We will back the Senator 100% with regard to research, innovation and knowledge transfer. The main issue is demand. Any increase in production must be market-driven. The report to which I have referred shows that market development is the number one aim of the organic strategy group. We would like to see more established markets for organic produce in Ireland and internationally, and public procurement could also be brought into it. It is not going to happen overnight but, if we work on the markets, we will move on a long way. Mr. Renaghan may also have points to make in that regard.