Mr. Joe Healy:

I mentioned the €2 billion that farmers have invested with the support of Government so farmers have invested a huge amount of money. An incredible investment was made at the end of 2008 - the rush to get everything done before 31 December of that year. People were going around with nothing to do on 1 and 2 January and for most of 2009. I know there is calendar farming, which we talk about, but many farmers came to me at the National Ploughing Championships to say that because of the cut off in the middle of September, they were actually spreading fertiliser in the rain. Two days' later, the Monday was a lovely fine day but they could not get out on that Monday because they had to have had it spread. Fair enough, there must be dates and rules that are adhered to but it would have made far more sense to go out with the fertiliser spreader on 17 September than on 15 September because the days were completely different. Deputy Cahill is right. We cannot take this review for granted. It is too serious. We will work collectively to get a successful outcome to this.