Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this very important motion. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We are speaking today about how we can deal with the biodiversity challenge. It is a worldwide challenge. A motion was passed in the last Oireachtas and I believe it is an issue we all support. Society definitely supports it too.

The biggest issue in trying to progress this is how to get everybody on board. This will be a major challenge. Other speakers have referred to the farming community. Statistically we are under pressure when it comes to our agricultural and farming community. When there are more farmers over the age of 80 than under the age of 35 it will be a real issue to have the farming community coming on board. We are looking at the scenario where 50% of our farmers are over the age of 55 and one third of our farmers over the age of 66. Those kinds of statistics in any industry will be one of the biggest issues when trying to get major changes in practice and major changes in society.

Our younger generation of farmers are very well educated having gone through college programmes over four years and then on to agricultural college. They are the most capable agricultural students in the world. When one talks of biodiversity, they understand the need for change and they understand that what happened in the 1980s and the 1990s cannot continue. For a start, they know that the market will not take it. They know they have to be part of a society and an economy that understands change is required to find solutions for this biodiversity problem. There have been solutions over the past few years. On the nitrates issue, for example, there was a targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, grant that brought forward the ability for slurry to be injected into the ground. The majority of slurry spreading in my part of the world is all now done by a trailing shoe injector. If I was to say this five years ago, I would have said there was no hope of that happening but it has been a major success and a major change. We have seen the economic and the environmental impact of major change like that.

The main challenge facing Ireland as a society is how we get everybody on board in order that we can make this major change in society, which is needed. That will be the problem. Our farming generation is the ultimate issue at the moment. How can we, to borrow the phrase, teach an old dog new tricks? That is the problem we have at present. We need to get them on board. That will be the ultimate problem for the Government. I believe that the majority of farmers really welcome the Government's plan for the farm retirement scheme. They want to have an outlet whereby they can move their farm on. We really have to find a solution to that issue. That will be a major part of moving this issue on.

Society has totally changed. Consider the ability of Tidy Towns groups to use Roundup and other such products, for example. They have all modified and changed their behaviours in the past two and three years. A societal change is needed to move this along. The motion is very important because it keeps the impetus on delivering that key change.This is all about raising the issues and coming forward with solutions.

We need to find a solution to generational change in our farms. It is the ultimate key solution. We have the best young farmers in the world. We need to ensure they have access to the land. By working on a farm retirement scheme, we will have the opportunity to make the real changes required to ensure that this biodiversity challenge can be met.