Mr. Seamus Quigley:

For any business, one needs three things, namely, strategy, capability and capital. Students in agricultural colleges are not taught about business, developing a plan, setting goals, doing financial budgets or managing key performance indicators. I often tear my hair out for this reason as many of the courses were designed to enable students to achieve the qualifications required to obtain a green certificate and reliefs. The courses were set to meet the lowest common denominator and students were not taught business skills. A substantial sum of money will have to be invested in industry and both on and off-farm processing. Ultimately, it will be farmers who must meet this cost. Farming needs business acumen and this quality is not emerging from the education system.