Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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On the succession and land mobility service, Macra na Feirme must be credited with the initiative it took in the establishment of the land mobility service. I understand it has been in place since 2014 and has proven to be a successful initiative to tackle issues in the area of land succession, particularly in the lack of preparation in identifying future successors and making those generational links. This was needed and Macra na Feirme’s initiative has proven to be successful in respect of the level of buy-in to the service. I want to talk about how Macra na Feirme sees the service developing into the future. I understand that Macra na Feirme has been developing links across the EU with a view to expanding it, given that the figures for 2017 showed that 31% of all farmers in the EU were older than 65 and only 5.6% of all European farms were run by farmers under the age of 35. How are those efforts progressing? Does Macra na Feirme foresee itself having to adapt the service further to deal with the current transition that farms are undergoing in respect of environmental demands? Is there any aspect of the partnership arrangements that is proving problematic in any way and that needs attention?