Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I am a suckler and beef farmer. We are at a crucial moment in agriculture. We have to use the Common Agricultural Policy to pay money to farmers to make sure there is food on the table, as was the case with the CAP many years ago. We must also pay tribute to the many farmers the length and breadth of the country who produce a world-class product that we are able to sell into any market in the world. We can stand over our products. This did not come easily. It came through the hard graft of farmers who embraced a huge amount of regulation. They embrace it every morning they get up and every day they do their work.

Within the Common Agricultural Policy, it is important to ensure the family farm is made as sustainable as possible. It is a vital cog throughout the country. In my area of north-west Cork, and throughout Duhallow in north Cork, it is vital that there is a future for the family farm and that young people are encouraged to believe there is a future in farming to which they can look forward. This has to be the cornerstone of the discussions we have and the final package that comes from Brussels.

The eco-schemes have to be well funded. Since the REPS was introduced approximately 25 years ago, many successful changes have taken place at the farm gate. Farmers have embraced these and we have seen huge improvements in the environment throughout the country. No matter what report or audit is done by the European Commission, Ireland or anybody else, it shows the money spent on eco-schemes has been used successfully to improve the environment. Farmers are the custodians of the environment and they have done very well with this over the years. It is very important there is a fundamental good and decent scheme that is well funded and can ensure farmers continue to do this. We must also recognise that we must not have regulation that is too cumbersome and that there is a streamlined scheme. Whatever final package is available, we must make sure we have at its core the family farm and that there is a proper workable eco-scheme for farmers.

I could debate this all day but there is only a short time available to me. We are at a crucial point in agriculture and we must make sure that we have to the forefront our biggest national indigenous industry, as other speakers have said, not only for the farm but also for the rural economy. The benefits of that cannot be measured merely in terms of having a viable agricultural industry.

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