Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. Credit is due to him and his officials for a huge body of work done over the last few months. A person who is under the age of 40, lives on an island and owns sheep is probably very happy indeed, because such a person will qualify for all manner of things.

I wish to concentrate most of my remarks on the rural development side. The Minister has been in here many times talking about protecting and building rural communities and investing in young farmers, which is part and parcel of that kind of building. We know that almost half the population live in rural communities, and they have an enormous variation in their energy, wealth and their traditions. I hear people use the wild language of farmers struggling and that way of life dying, but it is true that there is a genuine struggle for smaller, poorer farmers. I particularly welcome the maintenance of the disadvantaged areas scheme for the 100,000 farmers who are crucial to the survival of those communities, and to the continued success story that is Irish food. One of our colleagues on the other side made that point. The increase in exports that and the multimillion euro investments that have been in recent years by certain agrifood companies has driven the success of the sector, but I would not like to see them drive on and abandon the very reason that Irish agriculture has succeeded. There seems to be a sort of division opening up between those large companies that behave as multinationals, because that is what they are, and the very small struggling farmers. I do not know what the language is between them, but increasingly it feels like they are not on the same page. I do not quite know how to qualify that, but it feels like it. As we talk about Harvest 2020 and as we talk about the need to increase the volume and the value, which we do for many reasons, some of the language about this and the way we approach small rural communities and smaller farmers still feels rooted in the last century, rather than being rooted in this century, taking cognisance of the real gap between those very wealthy multinationals.

They were all born as co-operatives owned by those farmers and their ancestors. They seem to have taken a great leap and I worry about what that might mean.

I congratulate those who came up with the name GLAS, which must have been a bit of an exercise. It is a good name. The Minister said most farmers would stick with GLAS as opposed to GLAS+. He described it as promoting bio-diversity and that GLAS+ would be very demanding. Is there any more detail on that at this point? Should we not encourage all farmers to be GLAS+? Why are we allowing a gap between the two? Are we looking to drive all of them to GLAS+ in the future?

In regard to the 50,000 availing of those payments of €5,000, what is the origin of that figure? It is obviously based, to some extent, on REPS figures. Is it a European figure or an Irish target? Did it come from Teagasc? How confident is the Minister that figure will be reached unless the language around farming changes quite significantly to being the guardians of the environment in a real sense? Ultimately, that is what that money is being paid for; it is to our benefit and that of farmers that we do that. Does the Minister believe we are beginning to change that culture and language? There are many terrific farmers who really have engaged with that, there are many who have not yet quite engaged with it and there are some who do not want to engage with it at all.

I share that concern about the 80% of farmers in each commonage having to sign up. The Minister might provide some clarity on that. It is something some commentators have called into question. Some 80% in each commonage would be difficult. Is that accurate or has there been an error there?

In regard to the target of 5% for organic farming, I appreciate that is the figure in Food Harvest 2020 and I think Irish farming is at 1.1%. Where and how can we reach that figure? Although we are not looking for 100% of farmers to be organic farmers, we have acknowledged, as Food Harvest has, that there are genuine economic opportunities. How does that fit with GLAS and this rural development programme?

In regard the disadvantaged areas payment, or areas of natural constraint payments, as we have now been told to call them, the Minister said there will be a review of that scheme in the next few years. When people read that and see the words "redesignation" and "new biophysical criteria", they will immediately wonder if this is some class of an excluding device. I do not jump to that conclusion necessarily but is it to reduce the overall fund ultimately or to make it more targeted, which the Minister already discussed in regard to other matters, targeting it at young farmers investment, for example? Clearly, there are areas of Ireland which are disadvantaged and will remain disadvantaged, and I do not care what nomenclature the EU officials come up with. I worry that changing the name of that is a step towards changing how they will be treated in the future.

In regard to beef farmers and the genetic improvement, I do not know what the baseline is for the current genetic capability or capacity of the herd as it is. Is this one step or two steps up or is it a massive change? Much work has been done, in particular by Teagasc, and some of the farmers have obviously engaged. How close or how far away are we from achieving this? How much of that fund of €52 million is destined for Teagasc and for training in that regard?

I refer the language of this sort of smart green growth which Harvest 2020 uses all the time. Does the Minister believe this is heading towards that smart green growth? I still believe the green thing is on one side and farming is on the other and they are not converging at a rate at which they might. I have no doubt that is a huge challenge. How far down the road are Irish farmers? How do we measure up to and compare with our European neighbours in regard to our capacity to be smart and green? As we know, everyone is using the same language.

I refer to the milk quota. I do not know what the Minister's views are on the smuggling matter but, obviously, that is a current issue. Some farmers are now supplying across the Border. Has the Minister any observations on that?

I refer to artisan foods and small and medium-sized enterprises. I particularly welcome the support. There is a very healthy artisan food sector and it has been great to see it grow over the past ten to 15 years, supported by the many supermarkets which see there is a benefit to selling Irish foods. It is great for local employment, for enhancing the restaurant and hotel sector and for tourism. It would be great if the Minister had more detail on that.

Teagasc does great work and its website is the first point of entry for many people to Teagasc but I would like to see it express the kind of future looking element the Minister outlined and the many programmes he spoke about. Again, it does not feel like it belongs or is joined up with this even though it is in many places. That is just a suggestion.

On a completely separate matter, I had asked for the Minister to come to the House at some point to discuss the forestry policy review group, the proposed merger of Coillte and Bord na Móna and the Forestry Bill. The Minister will have heard last week some discomfort and lack of trust expressed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Will he address that now or tell us when he will do so?