Dr. Brendan Dunford:

I will answer that question. Perhaps Dr. Moran will also have a comment to make. I thank the Deputy for his comment and support; it is much appreciated. He mentioned a hamster wheel and the wheel seems to be spinning faster all the time and becoming harder to get off, unfortunately, for many farmers. I do not like to use the word "compensate" because the whole approach to the Burren has been to reward and incentivise. "Compensate" can reflect what is wrong, in some ways, which is that we tend to look at the challenges and problems as opposed to the opportunities and the potential. The magic that started in the Burren was looking at a challenge and reinterpreting it as an opportunity. We need to do that at a national level. Anyone following the coverage of COP26 can see there are huge challenges but I keep thinking there are considerable opportunities, particularly for Irish farmers, to exploit and to be rewarded. There is an appetite in society to reward farmers for the right type of farming activity and increasingly, through the work I do with farmers in the Burren and nationally, I think there is an appetite among farmers on the ground to embrace this new opportunity and way of farming.

How do we do it? The Burren has received a lot of praise. We work with 300 or 400 farmers. It is a small project and not everybody is 100% on board so it is a work in progress. However, gradually over time people see what we are trying to achieve and the benefits for themselves, the generation to come, the local environment and community. They also see it as a way of respecting past generations of farmers. Slowly but surely, farmers are coming on board. The nice thing about our model is not just the money, because the reward is modest enough, it is the freedom to farm and the respect we afford farmers to get on with their jobs. We try to take the paperwork away from them and to invest resources in them so they can deliver for the Burren and for society. It is about scaling that at a national level. The criticism has been always that it is the Burren and involved Mr. Michael Davoren, Dr. Sharon Parr and a few other people like that. The reality is that the success of the Burren has been proven by projects such as the hen harrier project, the fresh water pearl mussel project and the biodiversity regeneration in a dairying environment, BRIDE, project in Cork. Those have shown that the basic ideas of rewarding outcomes, providing advice and support at a local level and encouraging and supporting farmers to take the step we all want them to take can be successful. Mr. Sheehan is doing a remarkable job in the intensive dairy sector, as was mentioned. The hen harrier project is rewarding farmers for the conservation of a special bird and habitat which previously had been seen as a problem and is now seen as an opportunity that may include a bonus payment flying into a farm. In Kerry, they are dealing with water quality across whole-farm level. It is extraordinary. What we do is in the halfpenny place compared to that project. It can be done.

We are missing policy support. The CAP strategic plan is a phenomenal opportunity. I have worked closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for many years and we are heading in the right direction but we need to head there faster. We also need advice and support at a local level. How can we get that? We must tap into farmers' knowledge of how to manage the land for nature and ecosystem services. Another big challenge is trying to convince farmers that this is the future. This is not sandal farming or wheelbarrow farming, it is about adapting cutting-edge technology to deliver new outcomes. Society wants us to deliver biodiversity and carbon sequestration, as well as good food, and farmers are up to that task if they are properly rewarded and supported.