It produces as well as sequesters greenhouses gases. It is a question of maximising the efficiency.

I would be interested in seeing the Deputy's paper on the fact that there is no greenhouse gas production from horticulture, for example. That is not the case.

I do not see much point in responding to the opening point the Deputy made regarding Covid-19 in meat plants, as I am on the record of the House on that issue already. Suffice to say, as I said then, that every individual who contracts Covid-19 needs to be treated in the best possible way by the health services and everything needs to be done to try and prevent the spread of the virus. The Deputy will be aware that the last time we were in here discussing this issue there was some clamour due to the fact that the H…

It is very difficult to answer on many of these points when Deputy Naughten has chosen to limit the time in the way he has done. The research community and the Department work collaboratively with a host of partners. The research community is quite progressive regarding all the issues to do with climate and sustainability. I will give just one example of an initiative in research, carried out in conjunction with Science Foundation Ireland and, if I am not mistaken, Teagasc and some other partners. It concerns green…

I thank the Deputies. If I can paraphrase Deputy Nolan, she said that farmers deserve credit where credit is due. I echo that. I made the point earlier before the Deputy came into the Chamber that long before it became popular to talk about sustainability, farmers were on this journey, referenced by the fact that the much-lauded previous environmental scheme, the rural environment protection scheme, REPS, is back in vogue. That goes back to more than a decade ago so farmers were embracing environmental ambition and…

I appreciate the contributions, which come from Deputies who represent rural constituencies and are aware of the endeavours farmers are making. They are also acutely aware of the fact sustainability is not a destination in itself but a journey. We might have thought we were sustainable ten years ago but we are more sustainable now than we were then, and I have no doubt that by 2030 we will be more sustainable than we are now. It is a question of bringing people with us on the journey. Not acknowledging the endeavou…

Since the start of this pandemic, the protection of public health has been the Government's overriding priority. The Government categorised farming and food production as essential services under the Covid-19 regulations. Irish food supply chains have continued to operate effectively to ensure the security of supply of safe healthy Irish food for consumers at home and abroad. In respect of Covid-19 and meat plants, as in all other aspects of the pandemic, we must all listen to the public health experts and adhere s…

In reference to the point Deputy McConalogue made about the Minister for Health, I remind the House that the Minister was present earlier, made a detailed statement on the meat plants and was available for questioning in that context. As my colleague, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation has confirmed, he identified 828 cases and 16 clusters in the meat industry. It is interesting that from the point of view of definitions, a cluster is identified as a place where there are two or more confirmed cas…

Deputy Stanley has categorised all of this as a mess but it is easy to be a hurler on the ditch commenting on everybody else's best endeavours. With every individual who contracts the virus and every industry grappling with the consequences, there is a challenge. Everybody is doing their best, including those workers deemed to be essential by this House when it approved the regulations. It should be acknowledged that these people have done fantastic work in keeping food supply chains going. My Department has had on…

The Deputy is more interested in grandstanding than getting information.

I will reference some of the points that I have not had a chance to reply to yet. I am conscious that I am straying into the jurisdiction of the Department of Health, but it is my information that, as the Minister, Deputy Harris, put on the record today, the local HSE teams that dealt with outbreaks initially and the local and national outbreak control teams that were subsequently established have had the authority to prescribe all and every action deemed necessary to protect the workers in question, up to and incl…

-----is that management in plants are co-operating. Communication with plants has been a movable feast because there were different communications on 18 March, 27 March, 9 May, which was the protocol to which the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, alluded, 15 May, which was the first specific guidance to meat plants, and 19 May, entailing Covid-19 checklists, etc. There have been different communications that we expect all plants to respond to. No one could have hit the ground running on day one with the kind of actions t…

That was a wide-ranging contribution on Covid-19. If the Deputy would like me to give chapter and verse on what we are doing for the beef industry, I draw his attention, for example, to a simple item called the beef data and genomics programme, BDGP, aimed at improving the genetic merit of the herd, thereby improving its environmental and financial efficiency. That is just one scheme. Several new schemes opened this year to deliver direct income support to the beef sector as well. I share the Deputy's observation a…

The impression has been created by Deputy Duncan Smith that this is a workforce dominated by migrant workers. He referred to 70% to 90% of them being migrant workers. We need to deal in facts. The largest ethnic group working in the meat industry here comprises Irish people. The overwhelming majority of people working in Irish meat plants are citizens of Ireland or other European Union countries. As the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, stated, there is a minority of workers who are migrant workers on work permits. As sh…

Deputy Cairns indicated that she wanted to ask me two questions. One was about the power of the beef sector and the other was about sustainability. I am not sure what the third was.

I will be brief in replying. On the power of the beef sector, we have taken specific actions to try to redress the balance. The Deputy might be aware that we have been advocating for and have successfully established a number of producer organisations, for example. The constant refrain regarding the beef sector has been that when an individual farmer rocks up outside a meat plant, he is a price taker. We have been trying to sustain and financially support beef farmers in establishing producer organisations in order…

That is the historical record. I cannot force people to get involved in a co-operative but the historical record is that there was co-operative involvement in the meat industry and those involved exited from it.

If the Deputy will let me reply, I am outlining the things we are doing to try to redress this and to give more power along the supply chain. There is what is called the EU's unfair trading practices, UTP, directive, which we are transposing into national law. In the context of that transposition, we went out to public consultation and one of the issues which we have attached to the implementation of the directive is a regulator for the sector, which will look at the dominance of the meat industry and see how, if p…

We concluded a public consultation. We have a fixed period within which we transpose the directive into national law. We were doing it as quickly as possible. As the directive was only completed at the end of 2019, we are losing no time on it. The producer organisations are already up and running and I encourage farmers to join one, if they have not already done so. On the issue of sustainability, that is core to everything the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is about, notwithstanding some of the com…

They say that the devil can cite scripture for his own purpose. I certainly would not be comparing Deputy Bríd Smith to the devil, far from it. However, I think she has selectively quoted what I said. The priority agreed by this House was that the agrifood sector was an essential service and that it was crucial to keep supermarket shelves stocked, to keep people with a supply of safe food. It was agreed collectively in this House that these people do essential work. However, I always said that in so doing, the prim…