Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank Dr. Farrell and her team for coming here today.

It is a very interesting debate and one I called for. It is great to see everyone here. The opening statement began on the essential role of women in agriculture. I welcome it, the debate and the initiative.

I will start with something of a provocation in that I have always expressed concern that even in the very heart of policymaking in this committee there are virtually no women engaging. They are not on the committee. That is not to say there are not many capable women with a great knowledge of rural communities, agriculture, agri-enterprise and food production within the Oireachtas generally. I would like to use this opportunity to appeal to the people within the walls of this Parliament and the electorate generally that we should see greater representation of women sitting in these very rooms involved in policy. That is a matter for each party. We talk about quotas in politics and about participation and meaningful engagement by women, but somehow it is not reflected in this particular committee. However, a new parliamentary period is coming and it is something we should exercise our minds with. I would ask the witnesses to use their power and voice to stimulate a debate in their organisations and in farm organisations, which will no doubt be listening in here, because there is a challenge. I want to see more women on this committee involved in agriculture, food and the marine and in the expertise around that.

I acknowledge the National Rural Network, Women in Irish Agriculture and the profile of great women entrepreneurs in the agrifood sector. I thank everyone involved in that. I know Dr. Farrell was very involved in that. When we talk about rural voices, I am familiar with their Rural Voices online seminars which have been ongoing since 2022 and which have brought a renewed focus on rural issues at a national level. That, and what they are doing today with their advocacy, is key. I acknowledge the support of this initiative and of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who is very much behind this in her portfolio of rural and community development and the national rural network and the synergies there.

We should mention that the Rural Voices seminar was one of the first of its kind in Ireland. My secretary, the Independent councillor to whom the witnesses were speaking before the meeting, Councillor Geraldine O’Donoghue, who is herself an NUI graduate in rural science and development, has engaged with the seminars and tells me of the enormous benefits she has taken from them. That is fantastic. People, especially women, because they are the focus tonight, can dip in and out of them.

Having looked at the opening statement, and I thank the witnesses for circulating it, a few things jumped off the page for me. There was reference to the need for inclusion, recognition and support for women in agriculture. The piece I am adding is confidence, because so many women in agriculture at all levels – agriculture, horticulture, food production, food science and all that – tell me about this thing of confidence. You gain confidence by experience and more experience. Will the witnesses touch on that? I refer to a few points from the submission, such as “women have always played a central role in sustaining our farms, families, and rural communities” and there is a lovely quote that those who are rural among us would know about “standing in the gap”. Everyone who was a lad in rural Ireland still knows the idea of the lads coming in to stand in the gap or help out. They have a meaningful role. Then there are the impediments and the barriers. The persistent barriers, in my experience, are the access to land, finance, education and, sometimes the oldest thing, and not necessarily because we are talking about females, succession. There is a conditioning growing up in rural communities about who the successor may or may not be. There is a winding road and many things go askew along the way, but that is important. Dr. Farrell has touched on something and we need a bigger conversation about that. I was talking to a family member the other day and we were saying how we do not talk about “the place”. We do not go there. That is forbidden.

Those are points I wanted to take up which very much resonated with me and which I understood. However, I was not fully aware of the Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture in Rural Areas, FLIARA, project. Will the witnesses talk to us about that after I finish my points? That is an important initiative. It showcases very successful women in agriculture and allied areas. It goes back to a question I want the witnesses to tell the committee about, namely, how we can manage greater gender diversity which leads to innovation. We must always be innovative and resilient. How do we develop the resilient practices around all of that? The witnesses are pushing an open door with me personally and I think that is the case with most people on the committee, but this needs to be a national conversation and debate.

Will the witnesses share with us their working relationship with the farm representative bodies as key stakeholders to get the message out? Well done to the witnesses. I hear loud and clear what they are saying. My appeal to the bigger grouping outside this room is that we need to mobilise and ask the political parties and Independents how we can have more women in this particular forum, because it is a critical forum in agriculture, and how we can use that to influence the political parties and none to make agriculture part of the bigger initiative of having more women in politics and the great initiative of participation and so on. It is a real, meaningful role and there is an eagerness for this to happen. Those are a few thoughts if the witnesses would like to respond.