Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also wish the best to the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Grealish and Michael Healy-Rae. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, they have a stay of execution but it will be a short one.

We spoke previously on some of the issues. Everyone gets the idea of the importance of the agrifood sector and the agricultural sector to Irish society, especially rural Ireland. We know that we need to ensure the sustainability of the family farm. I have no doubt many Deputies have received even more representations on this. People spoke about the issues there are with the CAP. We know the issues that exist in relation to Mercosur, which is coming down the line for Irish farming, and does not serve anyone from a farming, monetary or environmental point of view. It particularly does not serve Europe or Ireland well. We need to ensure there is real opposition to this. We need to make sure we see continuity in the derogation from the nitrates directive. There are huge issues facing the dairy sector and many others.

We are only through Storm Éowyn. Alongside the work that needs to be done on resilience, we can all accept we will have a greater level of emergency or extreme weather events. We need to make sure we have the schemes in place. It took a considerable amount of time to get a scheme in place following the flooding that happened at the Cooley Peninsula. Farmers had to wait a considerable amount of time for payments. Some of that is being progressed at the minute, but we need to see that all happening a lot more quickly.

We all know the issues we will be facing. I accept that is why huge work will have to be done in respect of mitigations. The OPW is looking at CFRAM and whatever else, but we have to look at natural flood barriers. All these things have to be done in conjunction with farmers because that has been a failure to date. Many Members will know that if they go to IFA meetings that could be dealing with issues relating to renewables, there will be farmers looking for schemes that work, whether these involve solar panels, microgeneration, anaerobic digestion or whatever. What you will deal with are a huge number of people who are open to this. Farmers will complain and say they have to do more to get less. They will talk about the issues. I have spoken to the Minister previously about efficiencies that could be put in. People will make complaints about the Department, inspections and Bord Bia. We can ensure we can do all these things better, but we also know that farmers are only too delighted if we can offer them the schemes that work for them, and if it is a real matter of working together.

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