Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)

I thank Senators Daly, Boyhan, Brady, Collins, Noonan and Lynch for their contributions. It is great to hear everybody speak positively about agriculture. I will be honest. When I came into the Department in January this year, I did not know a hell of a lot about the export of Irish produce. I grew up on a farm in the seventies. At that time the only export was live animals. Looking back at the seventies, a short 50 years ago, and where we are at now, that would not have happened without the co-operation of the farmers. I came into the Department and met with the Secretary General, Brendan Gleeson, in January. The first thing he said to me was that farming is a good news story. It is a good news story, and it is important we get that story out there. I take this opportunity to wish Brendan Gleeson well. He is retiring on 1 October. He has had a long and distinguished career in the Civil Service and rose to the top in the Department of agriculture. He has played a huge role in that during the previous Presidency. He played a major role in that, and it is important we acknowledge the tremendous work we do.

For Ireland to export 90% of what it produces in the agriculture sector is something I do not think is achieved anywhere else in the world. It shows the commitment of the farmers and how they have worked all the way along with various Departments. There were tough times for them. They had to change a lot. The most important thing when we sell our produce abroad is that we want to sell a top quality product. We would not have that product only for the co-operation of the farmers. There are a lot of people involved in getting it from field to fork. There was a time the farmers were not getting the prices they should have been getting. There was the person in between who was making the money. Now, I am delighted to see that the farmer is beginning to benefit from the hard work they have done, and it is important we keep that and do not let the prices slip again. Senators are right that the price of buying a young calf to replace the animal being sold will probably increase, but we have to ensure there is a profit margin for the farmer.

It is crucially important we diversify farming and look for new markets. I was in Cambodia recently. It was my first role abroad as Minister of State and it was for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. The reason Vietnam and Cambodia were picked was because we want to open up a new market there. In my role as Minister of State with responsibility for new markets and food promotion I was asked to consider going to Vietnam and Cambodia, which I did. I met the minister for agriculture there and it was interesting. I recently made a trip to County Kerry where I called in to see Kerrygold, which is now Ornua. It was explained to me how it started back in a small caravan in a field, and it has now built up to a multibillion euro company. I also met representatives of Tirlán in Vietnam. They were interested to hear how Ireland got from the seventies up to now. They are technically where we were in the seventies and eighties. They were interested in the co-op movement. We have to acknowledge the tremendous work the co-ops have done here.Tirlán has a huge team in Vietnam and very senior management there. The work they are doing is in conjunction with Bord Bia, which I will touch on shortly, and with the Kerry Group, to get Irish farm produce there. They told me the best thing about selling into these countries is the quality of the product we are producing. That goes back to the other role I have in the Department with the research and development element. I was in Moorepark in Cork recently and the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and I gave an investment of €8.6 million. I was very impressed, when I walked the land with the staff, by the different types of grass they are trying to produce. Senator Noonan will acknowledge that. It is to do with the methane of the animal. A cow goes onto a different field with a different type of grass and then it eventually goes through a machine where they can check the methane that comes out of it.

The farmers have played a huge role in climate action. I am on the Cabinet subcommittee on water quality and it is improving. It is slow but it is improving. There is a lot done and more to do, but the farmers are working. Some farmers have a lot more to do than others, but they are willing to play their part and that has to be acknowledged. I was impressed when I saw the graph up on the wall from the EPA. Its representatives at the meeting acknowledged there is massive improvement and a lot of it is within the agricultural areas.

I was very interested in what Senator Cosgrove said about the farm markets. I was talking to an individual recently who told me he loves going in and selling a fresh product. He does not want to be going home bringing back product and then bringing it somewhere else when it is two or three days out of the ground. He has developed an app and now, two or three days before he goes to the farm market, he gets the order, gets it ready the morning of the market and then he goes in. It is pure fresh product that has come out of the ground that day and that is the way it is going to go forward. I was very impressed with it. He told me his clients are extremely happy because they know the product was freshly picked that morning for them. It is great.

Senator Daly spoke about Kilbeggan whiskey. I met representatives of one of the biggest drinks industry chains in Canada a number of weeks ago. It was arranged by the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, who was in Canada for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. This guy has more than 600 off-licences and turns over $2 billion Canadian a year in drink sales. With the tariffs going on between Canada and the United States, he said a lot of the American drink, like bourbon, is gone from the shelves. He says he sees a huge opportunity for Irish companies to go in and sell there. We are working with him through Bord Bia and I am nearly certain there is a major trade mission being organised to go to Canada by the end of this year to work on that. I have been asked to go to Mexico in the next number of months and that is being worked on.

Talking of trade missions, the Minister was in the United States. It was a successful mission. Is my time up?