Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide an update on the engagement his commission on generational renewal in farming has undertaken since its establishment. [38403/24]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I want to get an update from the Minister in regard to the engagement he has had regarding the commission on generational renewal in farming that, I understand, he has established or is about to establish. We all recognise that many farmers are ageing and are looking around to see who will take over their farms and what will happen. There was talk recently of some kind of a retirement package or something else to encourage farmers to move out of farming. However, the difficulty is at the other end. I refer to is getting younger people to take up farming. Young people do not see a future in farming. They do not see a livelihood in it. They do not see the prospect that was there in the past. Many of our young people are better educated and have other options. That is excellent, but often in rural areas we find that family farms are not being utilised. We need to come up with solutions in respect of that.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. This is something that has to be at the core of all of our attention in the time ahead. We are blessed to have a wonderful food-producing country, to have a landscape and a climate that facilitate this and, indeed, to have a farming community which has the skill set and the passion to be able to ensure that the sector is as strong as it can be. However, in order for the agricultural sector to stay strong and to maximise our future potential, we are depending on bringing young people in to drive it on, manage it, be innovative and bring new ideas and new energy.

That has to be the absolute focus of all our policy going forward. It is something I have put a particular focus on over the past three or four years. I made sure it was a key aspect of the current CAP in terms of the funding we put in. I tripled the amount of funding under the CAP which is going to young farmers. That means, for example, young farmers participating in the young farmers scheme for the first five years of their farming life can now get a payment of €170 per ha every year for the first five years, compared with €68 per ha 18 months ago. It is now €170 per ha every year for the first five years. We have also put significant funding into the national reserve and into TAMS with a 60% grant as before, and a particular focus on women, also with 60% grant aid, to try to improve the gender balance at farm level and deliver the progress we have seen elsewhere in the food and farming sectors. It is slower to come about at farm level.

Going forward I have announced my intention to establish a commission on generational renewal gathering all ideas so we can put the young farmer at the centre. I am open and will be engaging and looking for submissions from all political parties and key stakeholders, but I am also open to any ideas the Deputy has about how best we can establish that commission in a way that will deliver the best results and make sure it delivers an outcome and pathway forward that puts young farmers at the centre.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister is aware my colleagues, Deputies Kerrane and Carthy, put forward a proposal earlier this year with regard to having a commission on the future of the family farm. It is about more than generational renewal. In our view, what needs to happen is we need to look at the family farm in the whole to see what the future of it will be. That is for the suckler, sheep, pig and every sector. Where will they be in the future? What evidence is there, if you sit with a young person in their early 20s today, that there will be a future in ten, 15 or 20 years for them and their family? That needs to be at the core of whatever is done. That is why we felt it was about the future of the family farm and making the family farm a sustainable model as we move forward. In many cases a lot of young people do not see that future. They see it as a part-time occupation. A lot of people, particularly with the smaller holdings, need to have enough farm income. That is all fine, but often the family farm is being left behind and will fall into absolute neglect. We see the income coming from farming has gone down and down in the past. Key to it is the price farmers get for their produce and the schemes rolled out by Government to ensure they are effective and provide for farming.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has identified the two key aspects in terms of economic viability for farming. Those are price and the economic schemes and supports we have in place to support food production and farmers' work at farm level. On price, 90% of our food is exported so it is dependent on the prices available internationally. However, the significant step I took as Minister was introducing the agrifood regulator with the objective of having a statutory independent agency to bring about as much transparency in the food supply chain as possible in how you trace back the prices available on the international markets we sell to, to the price that the farmer gets at the farm gate. That is the key job of work.

I turn to schemes. From a Government point of view, we have significantly increased, by 50%, the funding for all schemes because we want to make it worthwhile for all farmers. We particularly want to make sure it is worthwhile for young farmers. We have put significant additional funding into that. However, we have to look at how we can take that forward. That is why I am establishing the commission. I am open to ideas as to how that is structured in a way that will be most impactful and I will certainly be engaging to bring everybody's ideas into that to make sure it informs the final report. Bringing young people in and the family farm, which is the structure we want to maintain in this country, are dependent on bringing that next generation of family farmer through. That has been and will have to be my key focus, and that of our sector going forward.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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A major issue is that the price the farmers get for their produce is dominated by processors and the big players. Often, they do not get an opportunity, because they are basically price takers. That is the key problem, along with how to organise and how to form production groups and so on to ensure we get a fair price for farmers. I was speaking to the grain growers at the ploughing last week. A lot of their grain goes to the alcohol industry. They said if they got 1 cent more per pint of alcohol - beer, Guinness or whatever - it would transform their possibility of making a livelihood; 1 cent more. We see the amount of money that industry spends on advertising and everything else, but it squeezes the farmer to the last. I think that is the same in many situations. It is the same in the beef sector, the milk sector and many others. We need to have a firm hand of Government to act as a regulator, not just to talk about it but actually do it, to regulate the market and ensure the farmer - the primary producer - who takes all the risk and puts all the effort in gets a price for the work they do. That would revolutionise the possibility of ensuring we can maintain the family farm not just for this generation but for future generations.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with Deputy Kenny. That is why I took the unprecedented step of establishing a statutory legal authority to deliver on that. I have also asked it to continue to engage and update me on its progress and I will be stepping to enhance its powers further as is necessary to make sure that transparency is there throughout the supply chain. We obviously have to be proportionate in law in how we establish any agency, but we have to make sure it has all the powers it needs to be effective. I am determined to ensure that is the case and to work with it as it progresses to make sure it has the powers it needs. It has been doing really good work up to this point.

I turn to schemes and how we ensure we are continuing to fund schemes, funding farmers for food production and ensuring they have the capacity and economic reward for the work they are doing in sustainability, biodiversity and the potential for energy production. However, it all has to be about bringing young farmers in and that is about viable incomes but also lifestyles that are sustainable where you can compete with other jobs, you can have a life and you are not tied to the farm all of the time. It is about having a lifestyle, which can compete with any other sector. That has to be our objective in how we look at supporting young farmers into the future and how we make all of our schemes and policy pivot around them.