Dr. Ailish Byrne:

I will provide direct experience of Northern Ireland through my discussions with my counterpart. The bank also makes the dairy farmer toolkit available to its customers. There has been a high usage of it there compared with in the Republic. That is reflective of the North's higher debt levels per farm, higher cost system and, perhaps, supply patterns, in that it has a much flatter supply curve. It is good that we learn lessons from Northern Ireland and not go down that route.

One can learn some good lessons from New Zealand in terms of grassland management, financial management techniques and the approach to the business of farming. However, we must also learn lessons from its farmers' debt levels and what those have done to their businesses.