Mr. Michael Doran:

We actually held a special board meeting after the request came to delay it for six months. I spoke to a number of farmers before we actually had the board meeting, in order to get their views. We had not released the index changes at that stage. The view they expressed is that they would prefer to know the information now than to wait for six months because if they wait another six months they will have bred another cohort of cows and are only delaying the changes that are going to happen. They would prefer to know now so that there is time to see it. If the changes and the recommendation of the changes are bringing in a better direction, they would like to implement that sooner rather than later. The board discussed it. Views were expressed but the decision the board took was, actually we delayed it by a week to allow a little bit more engagement with people in that week, but the decision was to actually have the indexes out there so that people could actually see it and see what the implications are for themselves. There was a vacuum and much debate about where it might actually bring us. However, the bottom line was that 84% of animals that are in SCEP still will be SCEP-qualified in 2025. The changes are small but for those that the changes affect, we acknowledge it is a big impact for those. We want to engage with them and try to see whether we can put something in place to help them to meet it. As I already said, we have engaged with the Department of agriculture for those who have made breeding decisions already, to see whether there any flexibility or any way we can actually help to address those people that are caught.