Professor Frank O'Mara:

I thank the Senator for this opening comments. I can assure him we would be happy to engage in media debates were anyone to come looking for us.

Ireland has a small horticultural sector and it is really competitive. There is only a small number of growers for each crop and it is a tough business to continue making a living in. However, we think there are opportunities. Apples is one area we have identified where Ireland should have a good opportunity. Approximately one year ago, we appointed a new researcher to develop an apple research programme. For many years we had none. We have just established a new research orchard. I will not say it is easy to do research but that is the starting point and getting a competitive industry going will take a lot of development work and support. As the Senator said, €80 million for one crop is a lot of money. If there are opportunities for Irish growers, we should support them to take that on. He also mentioned blueberries and so on. There are lots of crops. One of the challenges for us is that it requires different expertise to support every crop. That is the challenge and we cannot do everything at the one time, but we are seeing if we can make that happen. That is our job as the agriculture and food development authority. We are all about trying to develop sectors, so that is of great interest to us.

On red tape and schemes, Dr. Lalor may be able to say more about how many schemes we are supporting currently. It is a lot.