Mr. Pat McCormack:

I wish to respond to Deputy Boyd Barrett. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association is a family farm organisation and we welcome the fact that the Deputy sees farming as a way of life rather than as a business. Inevitably, farming must be juggled to keep it afloat, but it is our heritage. The majority of our members are in the low to middle income bracket. In March of this year, when the Council of Ministers agreed in Europe on a cap for individual farmers' budgets, ours was the only organisation to express disappointment that the cap was not more meaningful to the Irish set-up.

The critical areas of our pre-budget submission relate to stamp duty and capital acquisitions. These are a burden that family farms cannot bridge viably to ensure a smooth transition from one generation to the next. With regard to schemes, traditionally such schemes as REPS or AEOS have been targeted at smaller family farms, the people we represent. These two areas are the cornerstones of our submission.