Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be honest, I would be more optimistic than the Deputy. I recently visited the Farm Zero C project, with which Deputy Michael Collins will be very familiar, in Shinagh, Bandon, where the four west Cork co-ops have come together to develop, on a commercial basis, a farm that is environmentally sustainable. They took us through all of the different aspects of what they are doing - testing different feedstuffs, changing and reducing the nature of the fertiliser, experimenting with multispecies forms of swards and different grass types, and so on. They are making incredible progress and doing it on a commercially viable basis. I have no doubt that with the support of Science Foundation Ireland, Teagasc and all of the partners who are working very closely with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, his Department and the stakeholders – the farm organisations themselves and the individual farmers - we will chart a way through this.

It is important to say that the latest text that has been agreed provides for very significant flexibility. There will now be a process of engagement between the Minister and the sector to make sure that what we signed up to is achievable, is in Ireland's interests and recognises the strategic importance of agriculture to this country and that we already have a sustainable system of food production here, which will continue long into the future.

See this speech in context