Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion

Photo of Victor BoyhanVictor Boyhan (Independent)
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Mr. Rushe made the valid point about the pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. That is where people have lost the run of it, somehow. They are all interlinked, and that is the issue. It is the environmental, the social and the economic. There is no point in having environmental and social if one does not have the economic. Everyone has to wash their face at the end of the day and pay their bills.

I will finish by asking the witnesses to tell this committee today what their three most important asks are. They are here to ask. We are here to try to support them and to collaborate with them. What are the three most important things that we could do, get on and move with in the next few days in terms of immediate support for the sector? We are now in the height of growing and production in this sector at this time of year. What would the witnesses' three top priorities be with regard to movement in support of the sector?