I welcome the opportunity to present this opening statement to the joint committee. Being the newly elected chairman of the authority, I welcome the opportunity to meet members on that basis, even though I have met many of them on a personal basis.
In the last 12 months we have witnessed some of the most severe weather events in living memory for the farming industry. Teagasc has been centrally involved in supporting farmers through its lead role in the inter-agency fodder group that was established by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed. Even though we may hate to admit it, there is a possibility that weather events like this will occur in the future. Teagasc is very conscious of the need to support the sector in the mitigation of greenhouse gases and its adaptation to climate change. Maintaining this focus will be a key priority for the organisation in the future to ensure the sustainability of farming.
Teagasc has been in existence for 30 years. Its remit is to conduct research into agricultural production and food processing and deliver advisory and education services to farmers. Its mission statement is: "To support science-based innovation in the agri-food sector and wider bioeconomy so as to underpin profitability, competitiveness and sustainability". As my children often say to me I am always talking about money, members will excuse me for embarking on that subject again.
Teagasc's current budget is €187 million. Teagasc is unique as a non-commercial body in having a relatively large proportion of non-grant-in-aid income, which amounted to €56 million last year. This non-grant-in-aid income is where Teagasc is successful in competing for a number of contracts for research and advisory funds at national and EU level. It also includes advisory and education fees, income from farm profits, industry and professional levies. Teagasc receives a further subvention of €125 million from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, of which €43 million is effectively a pension fund. The €43 million is money which comes in and goes out. Our income comprises upwards of €80 million by way of a direct subvention from the Department and a further €56 million in fee-earned income last year. It is there to fund our capital expenditure programme.
Teagasc has approximately 1,200 full-time staff, including contract staff. In addition it has approximately 280 Walsh fellows, 260 at doctoral level and a further 20 undertaking a masters programme. The people concerned are hugely important to fuel research and provide advice in the future.
Teagasc is probably best known for its advisory offices, of which it has 51. A number of years back it had a number in the high 80s. In addition, it has seven agricultural colleges, four of which are owned by it and three of which are privately owned and subvented by Teagasc. Teagasc has seven research centres which cover diverse agricultural and food-related issues.
Teagasc has six operational programmes which are hugely important from a research, advisory and training perspective. They cover animal grassland research and innovation; food research; crops, environment and land use - a smaller category; the rural economy and development; advisory work and associated work; and, importantly for young farmers, education and training. Teagasc's aim is to drive productivity in the areas of dairy, beef, sheep and pig production without compromising sustainability, a point I would like to underline. Despite the very difficult year we have had, the FoodHarvest target to increase milk production by 50% by 2020 will probably be met this year. That has to be seen as very positive. There are two central pillars to Teagasc's ruminant livestock programme - genetics and grassland improvement. In the last two weeks Teagasc embraced the potential of digital technologies to transform pasture based agriculture through the recent launch of a €40 million investment programme, VistaMilk.
That is hugely important because it was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Science Foundation Ireland and the industry participants in the area of agriculture. That cohesive tripartite involvement is very important.
Food is at the hub of what we do. There is little point in just producing food. We need to process it, but it is important to add value also. In that area, it is vital that Teagasc, through its Moorepark technologies and innovation in which Teagasc is a 50% stakeholder, is investing €10 million in Moorepark Technology Limited. We have a further €10 million earmarked for the area of food technology hub, which also will be based at Moorepark in Fermoy. Within the past week, the Minister opened a prepared consumer food centre at Ashtown. The purpose of that is to get the industry up and running in the event of a Brexit issue but we should be doing it anyway regardless of Brexit because it is all about adding value to the food chain. In addition to that, we have received almost €3 million from Enterprise Ireland to establish BIA, an innovation facility, at the Athenry campus, which will support small and artisan food producers in that area.
Another area of activity is crops environment and land use. Members are well aware of the much publicised document, Food Wise 2025, to ensure that the delivery of that ambition can be achieved in terms of sustainability in both economic and environmental terms. Key to achieving these objectives will be the redoubling of our efforts in the development of better varieties in the crops area and crops that are resistant to pesticides as various agri-chemicals will be withdrawn.
The promotion, in collaboration with the Department, of sustainable forestry expansion is hugely important for the future as we deal with the area of climate change. It is particularly important that we include native woodlands on dairy farms in particular as we deal with the growth of dairy farms within the context of the climate change environment.
The rural economy is an important area. The economy programme is focused to make sure we have sustainable agriculture in the broader sense but also in terms of quantifying the costs of climate change mitigation, the modelling of the economic impact of Brexit scenarios, taking into account the viability of small farms, and devising and tracking indicators of sustainability. Agriculture and farming is a broad church, if members will excuse the term. We need to be very conscious of our small farmers also from the point of view of the sustainability of rural Ireland.
On the advisory area, Teagasc provides an advisory service to its 44,000 paying clients but also information to our 130,000 farmers throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. In terms of our staff who interlink with those on a daily or weekly basis as is required, we have 240 advisory personnel, 87 of whom are allocated to our 18,000 dairy farmers, 131 to dry stock and the environment, but they are primarily beef farmers, and 11 to tillage, primarily in the tillage growing area.
Teagasc has and must continue to work very closely with Bord Bia in implementing its Origin Green at farm level through its unique carbon navigator programme.
It is important to point out to the members that Teagasc has recently begun collaboration with local authorities and the co-operatives, primarily with dairy processors, on a major programme to provide a free water quality improvement advisory service for farmers. It is called the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme, which is a bit of a tongue twister, or ASSAP. What is important, however, is that it is a free educational programme that works in collaboration with local authorities, but primarily with dairy processors, to ensure that water quality is as it ought to be.
Education is hugely important because unless farming can attract young, highly qualified people, farming is going nowhere. The education programme is at the hub of what Teagasc does and at the hub in terms of the future of agriculture. In 2017, more than 7,000 learners participated in Teagasc school leaver programmes whether it be through adult education or Teagasc linked higher education courses. We are now implementing three major initiatives stemming from the recent review of the programme, which is called the extension of education pathway. That includes apprenticeships, promotion of teaching and learning practices and the development of continuous professional development courses, aimed primarily at farmers.
The members will have to excuse me. I am chairman only a wet week, so to speak, but nevertheless there are areas I am concerned about from a Teagasc point of view. Excuse me for talking about money for a start but there are three areas I would like to bring to their attention. First, regarding capital requirements, in the absence of access to borrowing facilities, Teagasc faces significant challenges in funding its working capital requirements. I am not saying Teagasc should be given a cheque book and be allowed to write cheques willy-nilly, but I am conscious that it does not have access to overdraft facilities or any borrowing facility to fund its research and educational infrastructure. It would be fair to say that, in the past, much of the capital expenditure was funded either through the sale of assets, and we cannot continue to sell fields forever, or through once-off special capital grants from Government. I believe neither of those is satisfactory from the point of view of the delivery of our objectives in the longer term. I want to make it very clear that Teagasc should live within strict fiscal policies but not having the capacity to borrow money for even short-term purposes is an impediment in terms of the development of agriculture and the delivery of our objectives.
Regarding recruitment, which is another hobby horse of mine, Teagasc is an outstanding organisation, and I believe the members share my view. It is a brand, but a brand is only as good as the people who are available to lead it. We are known globally as an outstanding independent and recognised agricultural research entity which delivers research for farmers, food researchers, food processors and Government agencies as well. However, we are facing severe challenges in recruiting and retaining high calibre staff. We do not want an open cheque book to recruit anybody at any figure but a particular issue is the very low starting salaries we are obliged to offer young, highly qualified researchers in particular. A slight tweaking of that entry level through recognition of their qualifications and work experience would be of enormous advantage to us.
Another area, and I touched on it earlier, is our educational programme for which there is a waiting list.
We also face a difficulty in facilitating the large number of students who are on a waiting list for part-time and distance education courses unless we are enabled to continue to recruit contract teaching staff. I appreciate that we have had that facility in the past and we would certainly welcome if this facility was afforded to us in the future. Very clearly, education is something that is hugely important to us but we need the appropriate funding to do it. The reason I say this is twofold. Successive Governments have been hugely supportive to agriculture from the point of view of the transfer of farms from one generation to the next in respect of stamp duty and the very generous capital tax allowances that are available. In addition, we have a grant programme that offers a significant extra grant allocation to young qualified farmers where they make investments in respect of their farms such as a new milking parlour or making the farm more sustainable but we need young farmers who have the appropriate level of agricultural education to facilitate that. It is in that context that I think it is so important that we accelerate our educational programme for our own young farmers to avail of the important facilities and schemes that have been put in place for them.
