I was under the mistletoe with Senator Boyle and Senator O'Donovan.

It was frosty.

As I have a relatively short period to respond I will do the best I can and will engage with Senators afterwards if I have not had a chance to address all the matters. Senator Gallagher set out the concerns that exist across this House and across the communities affected. I think he is acutely aware of the challenges we face. Senator Craughwell raised a number of issues. He raised that of the Gaffney family regarding a particular issue. I know that is a complex case and I believe I will be meeting with members of t…

They might learn something. If they stay quiet they might learn the complex issue.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

The Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, and I cut our teeth in student politics 35 years ago. I learned a lesson back then and it is equally worthy today. Never be speaking after him, because you will certainly not outdo his capacity to hold an audience and hold people to account. I do not bear any ill will against Sinn Féin for taking an opportunity like this. Maybe we have all done it in opposition.

I grew up on a small farm in the west of Ireland. I know what survival is like. I know what difficulties and issues faced a farming community.

I do not mean this in any kind of an over-the-top way, but I do not need anyone in this House, from this side or the other, to lecture me about the struggles farming is facing.

Also, over that protracted period of time, I have come to see how successive governments have supported the farming sector and how it is a different place now from what it was 40, 45 or 50 years ago. I also know there is a much different approach now to marketing our beef abroad and that the integrated nature of the supply chain and the complexities of it are very different from the kind of abattoirs, the kind of butchering and the kind of processing that existed back then. It is a hell of a lot more complex. Some …

-----how the requirements of the customer are very different-----

-----and the way in which markets are provided for.

That is for another day, however. It is not for us.

I would expect that tomorrow, when he comes before the committee-----

-----Mr. Murrin will be well able to explain the complexities of the supply chain-----

-----and the complexities of meeting the demands and needs of a changing marketplace. It is not all about carcasses moving to and fro. We have heard about the remarkable growth in the value of agrifood exports over the last decade and more from an export value of €10 billion in 2011 to an estimated €21 billion in 2025. That figure is a truly a record. Our export destinations are well balanced between the EU, the UK and international markets. We all know the importance of market diversification in these volatile geo…

Farmers talk to me regularly about the exactness and complexity of these standards and the challenges they present. If the people at the top of Bord Bia were to exit, those very standards would be questioned in third countries, markets outside of Ireland.

While we might think we would have a handle on this debate and know what was going on, we do not know how it would be translated-----

-----by some of our competitors. Can the Deputies imagine how the delivery of a head, as Sinn Féin has been demanding of the Minister, Deputy Heydon, would be presented by those countries that seek to compete with us in international markets? They would say there was a problem with Irish beef and with the standards.

They would say there was a problem with the agency.

They would undermine us. That would open up an entirely new front.