Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I am glad to hear that he is considering this matter an important one that needs to be addressed. If we are to have a farm structure process across the country that is reflective of the reality on the ground, it must involve culture change and policy changes. A draft CAP plan was published on 11 June in terms of negotiations and contained two articles.

Article 72a states:

1. Member States shall adopt specific actions focused on promoting a greater inclusion of women in the rural economy, through interventions in line with the current regulation with the aim of contributing to the objectives... [and]

2. Member States may, in their CAP Strategic Plans, grant support to promote the involvement of women, inter alia, in knowledge transfer and information actions, advisory services, investments in physical assets, farm and rural business start-up and development, installation of digital technologies and co-operation.

They were removed from the final CAP agreement. The Minister may be able to shed some light as to why. Will he ensure that at a domestic level, those measures are included in our plan?

See this speech in context