Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the ambassador and our other guests. In particular, I welcome former Senator Eugene Regan to the Chamber. He is a friend and colleague of mine. I collaborated politically with him at local and national levels. It is great to see him here in this Chamber of which he was once a Member.

I wish to raise the issue of the farmers' charter of rights. The Leader will be aware of the ongoing issues relating to farmers, who are constantly seeking to be treated fairly and with respect, dignity, professionalism and efficiency. We have many funding systems for agriculture and farming. If there is one word to sum this up, it is about "simplification". Farmers want to be compliant with environmental standards and water and EU directives. We are conscious that we are part of the European Union and benefit from the European institutions and its funding. Needless to say, we prosper under them. We and farmers want to be collaborators. It is in their interests to have a proper economic, environmental and sustainable agriculture industry in this country. In preparing for today's meeting of the agriculture committee, I was reminded that the most recent farmers' charter of rights was from 2015 to 2020. It is now 2024. It is time to engage with farming representative bodies, revisit the old charter, add to it and give effect to new schemes and systems, such as ACRES, for instance. There are no issues in that regard. It is progressing. Farmers want to play their part but we must have a charter that respects them and allows them to be economically efficient, environmentally aware and conscious and viable. We can do that through working with them and working for a new charter. I call on the Government to let us get working, sit down with farm representative bodies and get a new farmers' charter that is up to date and fit for purpose.