Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Noonan. I thank all three representatives for their presentations and proposed actions. I should have said at the start that we had decided to take on this issue as a project this year to come up with a range of solutions prior to the budget to put pressure on the Government to introduce necessary changes. It was on foot of Senator Mullins and Deputy Calleary raising the issue last year that we decided to give it a big push. We held public hearings on the issue in Waterford and Kilkenny and will cover counties Mayo and Galway next week. I hope we will cover further counties in May and June and meet members of ISME, the SFA and other groups to get a feel of what needs to be done on the ground. A range of suggestions being brought forward. The delegates have presented some new ones today which are very clear. Our hope is that in early autumn we will compile a report with recommendations for the various Departments involved because we recognise this is a cross-departmental issue to which we need to bring a focus to help the members of ISME and the SFA and the economy in general. We must provide a forum for this issue to push it on. I thank the delegates for their help today in facilitating that objective and giving us their ideas. I will now take questions from members. Owing to Dáil proceedings, we must finish around 3 p.m. I will start with Deputy Calleary who will be followed by Senator Quinn and Deputy Lyons.