Dr. Stan Lalor:

We wholeheartedly welcome any simplification, because it is not just a challenge for farmers, it is a challenger for advisers supporting them. In what is needed by the sector and by clients, we are aware of the dependency the value of the schemes add for farm income and the objectives of what various schemes are trying to achieve. The Senator mentioned ACRES and others.

There are technical and environmental benefits and so on. Having said that, we in the advisory service are conscious that it does not take over the entirety of our resources. The best advice we can give on technical and business development to support farm viability, social sustainability and so on is equally important. We are focusing on the balance as we develop the advisory service.

We are proactively engaged not just with those in the Department. We are also consciously working with others involved in schemes. There is a large cohort of private advisers delivering scheme work as well. That is something in which I am personally invested. I am committed to developing the collaboration of the Department across all of the advisory actors in the system, including not only with Teagasc but also with the private schemes, to facilitate as far as possible active dialogue and collaboration to make the work around delivering important income and income streams to farmers. We want to make that as simple and impactful as possible. That is something we are on board with. We would be highly supportive of anything that can be done in that regard.