Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Coughlan for clarifying what is an important point. I thank the ICBF and the Teagasc representatives. They may be aware that the invitation was sent to them on foot of contributions made by members of the private farm software companies who raised a point which has not been addressed directly here. Nobody argues about the value of gathering the information. I am a client of Teagasc, registered with the ICBF and a client of one of the companies and therefore I must be careful about what I say here but I understand how the system works.

Dr. Kelly said that the DairyMIS survey was a development of what would now be considered a crude version of software but it was probably more challenging at the time than much of what has come through now. In terms of finding through collaboration and a sharing of effort the most cost efficient way of gathering information and developing software product the question for Teagasc in particular, where I would imagine resources are tight, is whether there is a more cost-effective way of doing that in collaboration with some of the private software development companies which cover a multitude of types of software development, not just agri-software. There are software builders who can do it, and Teagasc has had to outsource some of its roles. Is it more cost-effective for it to do that? Would it put pressure on its budgets to do it? That is the general context of some of the concerns raised here on the previous occasion and it is only fair, in order to have a full discussion, that this point is raised. Does anybody want to answer that question?