Martin Heydon

If this were about price we would be talking about a lot more than 1%. It is not. In general, if an Irish food company-----

I did not interrupt you lads.

I will offer the time afterwards to my colleagues as well.

Can I get his time afterwards?

As I was saying, if an Irish food company failed to address the contingency supply as part of a contract for a major international buyer of Irish produce, that client company would take its business elsewhere. Imagine for a minute here, with all their shouting and bluster, if that contract had gone to a Dutch, German or any non-Irish food company-----

-----how much of that contract do they think would involve Irish produce? It is very little, I can guarantee. The Bord Bia board met on Thursday, 22 January to discuss the issues raised and the recent media coverage. I sought and received a detailed report from Bord Bia following that meeting. It is worth repeating that the members strongly endorsed the integrity of the chairman, the transparency…

Prove my point.

Prove my next line before I say it.

Sinn Féin is creating noise and bluster to try to make sure farmers cannot get any reasonable, detailed debate around the detail of this matter.

As I said at the outset, we face loads of challenges in agriculture.

They will not be resolved by ultimatums or diktats. I have always defended the agriculture sector. I have done so in the best interests of our farmers and our wider agrifood sector. That is my job.

That is my job in the Department and at the Cabinet table. I do it to the very best of my ability and I will continue to do it, whether it is on nitrates, Mercosur-----

-----CAP or on bluetongue.

Instead of coming in here looking for cheap social media clips on the back of an individual who has made a significant contribution to an important organisation-----

-----Sinn Féin might reflect on whether it could have used its time better here in farmers' interests discussing another item.

I trust my colleague will get the appropriate four minutes that eluded him because of the interruptions.

No.

It is a deliberate attack.

It is a deliberate attack by Sinn Féin.

He is entitled to his time, because you interrupted him.

A whole year-----

You are superseding the very committee you will sit on tomorrow. You are superseding the work of that committee.

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising what is a really important issue. I also offer my condolences and sympathies to those affected by recent bereavements, whether they finally get categorised as farm safety fatalities or otherwise. The HSA, as a statutory body, has work to do. There are an unacceptably high level of fatalities on farms and, as the Deputy quite rightly outlined, ours is the most…

Obviously, anything we say now is in general and not in relation to any specific case.

We talked about a range of issues. Generational renewal has a role to play here as well because, in general, the figures show a disproportionate number of old people are dying on our farms. When people asked me before why so many people in their 70s, and some in their 80s, are dying on our farms, it is because so many people are farming in their 70s and 80s. In any other profession, they would not…