Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Virtually every strategy we have is prepared in consultation with farm bodies. The food vision strategy we have for 2030 was done with stakeholders, farm bodies and environmental NGOs. We had significant engagement on the farmers' charter. The discussions were difficult but they finished well yesterday and that is constructive. Let us talk about farmers rather than farm bodies for a moment. Regarding our basic payments scheme, we hold clinics all over the country where we sit down with people who are having difficulty filling in the forms and work through them with individual farmers. That service is really appreciated. The National Ploughing Championships is the place to see really good interaction between the Department and real people, if you like, because people come into the tent and they are told what is happening with their payments and what the issues are. There is positive engagement. You can never have enough, but compared to other sectors, we are very close to our stakeholders with respect to communications.