Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here and, as ever, for presenting his case with clarity. There is much to be positive about here. The Minister outlined examples such as the research that is ongoing, the Origin Green programme and the involvement of Teagasc with Glanbia. All sorts of projects, schemes and research are ongoing, all of which are heading in the right direction and all of which are saying that sustainable agriculture is the way of the future. Indeed, I look forward to a moment when we will be able to debate agriculture without putting the word "sustainable" in front of it, because it must be sustainable. No other form of agriculture is possible, and this has always been the case.

The Minister said at the conclusion of his speech that he wants to do more because our natural advantages offer us that opportunity, and I could not agree more. My concern arises from this. Because of our natural advantages and the way agriculture has developed in Ireland - as part of our DNA and culture - it was never organised on a business model, and it certainly has not developed in that way. If we look at sustainability, what is missing is the notion of keeping rural communities sustainable, because without the rural community, nothing else is sustained in the way one would want it to be. One certainly will not be able to sustain the natural advantages in the way we do business, as we do now. Senator O'Donovan alluded to the notion of factory farming or big industrial farming, as we see in many other countries, and I concur with his point. I do not think that is a model that would continue to give us the advantages the Minister has spoken about. My worry is that if we do not continue to sustain rural communities, the very things knocking at the door are those big industrial-type farms, which of themselves are a different beast and have different sustainability requirements. I would be very interested in hearing the Minister's view, because we have seen what the free market does with prices to farmers in respect of milk, beef and so on. We see what happens when the free market is all we have.

Farmers are struggling. I am not talking about the very big farmers. The average farmer works very hard to make a decent living. They are the custodians of our environment and they do have a huge responsibility. We ask a lot of them in providing good, clean food and also being the guardians of the environment. I am not sure whether we pay them terribly well for the latter, and sometimes for the former. If we do not make it attractive for them to stay - if we do not say that our communities need to be sustained every time we stand up and have this conversation, and if we do not say that this is what we want and this is what we are aiming for - the whole notion of sustainability, with all the research, investment and schemes, will not be redundant but will be disconnected from that idea. That is my fundamental worry. I worry that we are heading away from rural communities and that kind of sustainability. I would be grateful to hear the Minister's remarks on that because, for me, that is the driving dilemma. I have no doubt about the Minister's bona fides and his policies in respect of crops, water, beef genomics and so on. I just worry about that bigger picture. I am not convinced that we are yet in a position at which our rural communities are on a sustainable path, because they require support, infrastructure and investment. I am not talking about a sentimental way of life - dancing at the crossroads. That is not what I am about at all. I support vibrant rural communities and hard-working farmers who can make a living and will continue to farm. Senator O'Donovan said that there are people who are moving out of dairy farming in the peninsula. People are moving out of farming in lots of places. That is just my fear - that we are the last of the nations to move into industrial farming. I am worried that this is where we are headed if we do not make that a central part of this debate. Otherwise, all of this is not quite redundant, but it seems to me to be the add-on piece, and I would also like to see the central piece.