Francie Gorman

To be fair, Clare, when we entered the European Union, we were net beneficiaries of a lot of funding from the European Union.

We're now net contributors.

Some of the benefits that we have are needed there.

You won't have the transfer of farmland to the next generation if you don't have those tax reliefs.

And the supports that we get in rural Ireland are well earned and we provide good value in terms of our exports.

And we're not the only sector in the country that's subvented.

Every sector in some shape or form is subvented one way or another.

And if you don't have that, you don't have an economy and you don't have a country and you don't have a community that will move forward with people on equal funds.

And we saw in 2008 when the financial crash hit, the importance of having indigenous industries.

And as I said earlier,

farming and tourism are the two industries that we have, and they need to be supported.

And we've given really good value as farmers for the supports we've gotten, and we'll continue to do it.

And the idea that you can have a rural-based economy in Ireland and not have agriculture at the backbone of it, that just doesn't stand up.

I mean, I think last year we exported 19 billion euros' worth of food products.

I think we imported about three.

And there is an issue around the importation of products, particularly if you're a heart grower in North Dublin or if you're a tillage farmer and you see grain coming in from abroad.

It is, and we've been fighting that for long before I ever became president of IFA, the need to support our hard growers in particular.

And we do see, I think we're down to about 100 field vegetable producers in the country now, which is astonishing.