Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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The point has been made that one of the biggest issues is that people who are working in a sector, perhaps they have a dairy farm, are literally waiting every few years to see whether they will retain it. No one could function in any job, role or business like that. The point the Cathaoirleach made is important. We need to tease out the issues that relate to the next generation. No farmers will want to encourage or influence their son or daughter to take on their farm enterprise, family farm or whatever you want to call it, when there is no certainty. It must be difficult to have to work in such an environment. While the focus will be on retaining the derogation now, a longer term solution has to be put on the table. The phrase "a clear pathway" was used. That is exactly what is needed because for the next generation coming up it is already a challenge. When we meet farmers, we might expect the first question to be about a scheme or income but it is actually about their sons or daughters having emigrated and they are not sure whether they should be encouraging them on to the farm because they are not sure whether there is an income in it for them. There are huge challenges for the future of our family farms and there is a real threat to them. Rather than stumbling from one issue to another and engaging and influencing on some and not on others, we have to have a pathway and deal with the challenges head-on. This is one of them. It would be interesting to get the witnesses' perspective on the longer term and getting out of the situation where it is every few years and we kind of limp from one to the next.