Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

They are not driven primarily by the safety and the health of their workers; they are driven primarily by the maximisation of their profits and sometimes workers' health and safety can be sacrificed at the expense of that. That is the allegation made by some of these workers.

My final question is about the future of agriculture. Small farmers are facing the brunt of the coronavirus crisis right now. When the crisis comes to an end, climate change is going to hit them hard. Are we going to continue with a model of agriculture which prioritises the profits of the big beef barons - Larry Goodman and others - or are we going to use this opportunity to start working on a different way of using the land which gives priority to the interests of small and medium-sized farmers? We need to rapidly transition away from intensive beef and dairy production to a sustainable low-carbon model of agriculture, without loss of income and, indeed, with a guaranteed decent income for small and medium-sized farmers. Will the beef task force meet, will the BPS payments be brought forward for small farmers, and will the Minister work on developing such a plan?

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