Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture: Discussion

5:30 pm

Photo of Tim LombardTim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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Would the witnesses agree there is change happening but probably at a slow rate? Agriculture is a wide field. I am thinking of the veterinary profession and consultants and advisers, including co-operative advisers.

Looking at my own circle, change has come in the last decade. Where are not seeing the dramatic change is inside the farm gate. The majority of my vets are female, as is the agricultural adviser. We have a range of people who are female. However we never recovered from the women who left agriculture in the 1980s and 1990s. I mean women of my mother’s generation. That is becoming the issue, namely, trying to get that change within the farm gate rather than outside of it.