Mr. Michael Spellman:

On the tracing of stock leaving the country, the central way to solve the problem is as follows. If no credit was given to the people concerned, there would not be an issue. The availability of redit has caused this problem, which is why marts find themselves caught for a sum in excess of €3 million. If people have sufficient facilities when trading, the mart will pay its client for the stock sold on any auction day. If the individual who buys the stock pays for it, there will be no issue. That is where we must focus our attention. It is not economically possible to put credit insurance in place because marts operate on a commission rate of between 1.6% and 1.9%. It would cost more than this to put credit insurance in place. The PSRA will be helpful to us. If individual farmers were to transact their business through marts, none of them would be caught because the responsibility is on the mart to pay them as individual clients who sell stock. If the marts continue to do business in the way they have always done, they will not allow anyone credit. We would then not have to go into the question of examining the traceability of stock leaving the country. That might sound simplistic, but it is the way to go.

From 2015, we will be out of the cheque regime, which will be helpful. There will be an onus on people to make immediate payment, whether by electronic transfer or otherwise, and that will be an advantage. We should solve the credit issue and other issues will be sorted out.