Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

Yes, and that why we established the interdepartmental group within my Department on its implementation. The implementation piece of this report is so important because ultimately, it is about clear action. Some of these measures require the structure of the next CAP post 2027 to be able to implement. A national budget is not going to deliver the type of succession scheme that would previously always have been in the structure of a CAP. That is not to say there are not a lot of structural things that can be done now. As I said, the commission report recognises families still have these discussions. As for the impediments to generational renewal, there are challenges, in that our next generation is better educated than ever before and people have vastly more opportunities in a country with full employment to generate a good income from off-farm working that may involve fewer hours and less hard work, but there are an awful lot of farmers who want to farm in this area and we have to support them in that transition.

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