John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

We are required to declare an interest at the outset of these debates, so I declare my interest as a tillage farmer in County Kildare. I used to farm beef until I saw the light of day and was no longer financially able to sustain a beef enterprise.

The industry is facing several huge challenges. There is the challenge of enlargement, and how we are going to deal with countries where a significant proportion of the population is engaged in agriculture. There are the issues of how we are to fund that enlargement, environmental protection and how farming can be sustainable within that context.

I attended a conference in Germany last week about sustainability which demonstrated how far the thinking in mainland Europe has gone beyond our thinking as to how farming and the environment must live together. It is significant that they are now considering co-operatives, not just producer co-operatives but consumer and producer co-operatives, to try to contain production within a region and to avoid contributing to greenhouse gas emissions by transporting goods over long distances.