Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Senator Burke could not resist. He should hear the song. He has not heard me sing.

The agrifood business must focus on serving the customer instead of trying to squeeze more and more supports from the State or Europe in defiance of marketplace needs. The words "competitiveness", "consumer focus" and "innovation", all buzz-words of this new approach, have been part of my songbook for many years. I must admit that my efforts fell mostly on deaf ears, even though Ministers and Departments were anxious to succeed.

Regardless of how many times farmers were told they could not go on living in the past, how often it was pointed out to people who believed they were owed a living independently of the marketplace that the lavishness of State spending must be limited, or how frequently we tried to confront the farming community with reality, farmers kept coming back for more. Mine is a lone voice on this issue, particularly in this House.

The farming community was successful in its efforts. For more than 30 years, farmers succeeded in holding back the forward march of progress. For much longer than 30 years, I do not remember what happened before that, they carved out a privileged lifestyle at the expense of the majority of this country's citizens. For as long as any of us can remember, the farming lobby held successive Governments to ransom, and in doing so they also held the people of this country to ransom. They are tough words but it happened and I see changes.

If we take this new plan at face value, the game is up. The only way forward in the long term is the one I championed all along, namely, the way of the marketplace. From now on, the farmers of Ireland must become customer-centred and driven by customers and the market. Will this happen? That brings me to the nub of my question. Normally, when people are confronted with unwelcome change, they are persuaded into it by the dire consequences of the alternative. When one is presented with the alternatives of either changing one's approach or going out of business, the instinct for survival usually wins out. However, when it comes to agriculture nothing happens in the same way as in the real world.

We now have a situation where farmers are guaranteed a living if they do absolutely nothing.