Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ms McCoy has said that farmers may not be aware of it. However, most co-operatives would penalise the farmer if the cell count exceeded a certain amount, for example, 200,000 or 250,000 cells per millilitre. It is not a new phenomenon that all of a sudden this magic figure has appeared out of the sky indicating that cell count is a problem. They would have been aware of it for some time. Obviously, it is up to each individual farmer to get his or her house in order in that regard. Obviously, a number of issues lead to the problem, including the machinery, the individuals looking after the cows and the cow itself. Some older cows will constantly be a problem. Should we consider culling at a higher rate to try to improve quality in future?