Joe O'Toole (Independent)

----as it is crucial. This happens on a regular basis. Every agriculture, energy and climate change spokespersons should be in attendance for this debate. I will not rehearse Senator Norris's points but they reflect my point of view and that of all the speakers so far, including on the Government side.

This is crucial legislation and these proposals have the support of the whole agricultural community, the IFA and local communities everywhere and also the support of Irish industry. I can assure the Minister of State they have the support of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. This is social partnership, a proposal from civic society coming before the Minister of State.

The Minister of State may decide he will not accept these amendments and nobody will be the wiser because, as Senator Norris said, it will not be given a column inch. This is a technical issue and nobody will even include the reference in the amendment. We are appealing to the Minister of State to look at this proposal in an open way. I will remonstrate gently with my colleague and friend, Senator Joe O'Reilly, as I do not want to misunderstand a point he made. He made the point about the issue of attracting farmers into this area but that is not the issue we are discussing. I want that issue kept separate. We are not talking about incentivisation but rather about a level playing pitch. We want the Irish farmer to have a level playing pitch with the Brazilian producer. It took five years to convince the authorities on the question of beef and meat imports from Brazil and let us not go down the same road again.

We are dealing with very technical issues and we are dependent on the Minister of State to cut through the technicalities and accept that good points have been made by speakers and that some of them may be conceded.