Dr. Tom Kelly:

From the Teagasc perspective we have worked with the software companies. The two represented here are just two. We use software in the pig industry. The pig advisers use PiGIS, which is a commercial software. On the tillage front some of our bigger tillage farmers have signed up with a non-Irish company which has an excellent tillage product. It is very suitable for large tillage farms and their advisers have no hesitation in advising farmers to use farm software where they can demonstrate the need for and value of it.

We do not want to be tied to a particular software. Dr. Dillon might comment on that because some of the criticisms made against us is that we should not exclude software companies in, say, the development of a new national database for a particular area in the same way the ICBF has done for breeding, whether that is for grass, soils and so on where we have existing databases. Mr. Dillon might wish to come in on that.