Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before coming to the matter I intended to raise today, I note the Leas-Chathaoirleach acknowledged, and rightly so, Finland's national day. In a light-hearted way, we referred to Santa as being from Finland. Senator Chambers then raised the issue of Afghanistan. I fully agree with the point she made. Let us come closer to home, to the European Union, of which we are members. We could do more, and we need to have a bigger conversation on the issue. What will Santa be bringing to the children of Afghanistan? Let us think about that question over the next few days. Perhaps we will have a conversation on it at another time.

I raise an issue relating to young farmers. Yesterday, at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, we were joined by the president of Macra na Feirme, Mr. John Keane. I am not sure if Senators know him but, by golly, they should watch him. He is a guy who is going places. He is highly articulate and an expert on agriculture and food. At the meeting, he talked about farmers, young farmers in particular. He stated that only 5% of our national farmers are young farmers under the age of 35. That is an extraordinary situation. He talked about the transition and supports. However, what really impressed me about Mr. Keane was his eloquence and his knowledge of eco-schemes.

We recently talked about peat. We must be careful not to lose the message that farmers are the custodians of our environment. They want to play their role. It is too easy to demonise them. Many people have demonised farmers in terms of their role. They want the supports to carry out their role. There are seven EU eco-schemes that farmers can avail of, but as Mr. Keane pointed out at yesterday's meeting, these must be expanded. The EU needs to provide education and training and certificates to young farmers who want to upskill. The education and training should be delivered on a modular basis across agriculture, because young farmers also have to work. The young farmers are very impressive.

Mr. Keane stated that the issues he would like to see addressed include climate change mitigation, adaptation, improvements in water quality, biodiversity, soil management and animal welfare. He dealt with the issues in a most comprehensive way in this contribution. If Members have a moment, they should listen back to the meeting. He is a very impressive president of a most impressive organisation, which represents the next generation of farmers and custodians of our environment.

I know we have a busy schedule at the moment. I ask the Leader that perhaps in the new year, we have a specific conversation, debate and engagement in this House with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to set out the eco-schemes that are available to farmers and to shine a light on the enormous, positive and good work that our farmers are doing for our environment in Ireland.