Mr. Nevan McKiernan:

I will try to address the questions as best I can. I will start with the confrontation with the owners of dairy herds. We certainly do not want confrontation between us and the owners of dairy herds. There is room for both. Everyone knows that dairying is more profitable than suckling. That is a reality and a fact of life. There is not much we can do about it. The problem with the scheme is our suckler farmers are being forced to introduce females from the dairy herd into their farms, which they do not want but they have to because of the scheme. The scheme was not thought out and it was badly driven through despite the best efforts of breed societies and different organisations in the agricultural sector.

I was asked why the females coming from the dairy herd are not as good as those from the suckling herd. The reason is when one goes for milk, fertility and traits like that, one loses out on beef traits. It is the reality of cattle breeding. As Mr. Comerford said, one cannot breed beef cattle from the dairy herd the same as from a suckling herd. Why was the suckler herd ever introduced if that was the case?

I cannot answer the question regarding how the board of ICBF was formed. I was told it was formed based on the number of shares each organisation holds in ICBF. If that is the case, I have asked how many shares the IFA holds in ICBF. With regard to the change we would like to rectify that, we would like the board changed so that everyone is represented fairly. As a democratic society, we deserve that at least. Efforts have been made to meet the board of ICBF. The federation's representatives will agree that I made efforts on behalf of the ICCS. We contacted the IFA in November of 2017 because we had not had a beef industry meeting in over a year since the scheme was introduced and genomics was included in the valuations.

I was asked how an animal can drop on the index like the animal I referred to in my presentation. That animal cost a lot when she was bought. She is the daughter of a three-time all-Ireland champion owned by one of the most prolific figures in the country.

Deputy Penrose asked about the BDGP scheme. I do not know many suckler farmers in the country who would say, with their hands on their hearts, they are in favour of the scheme. I asked 15 mart managers whether the quality of cattle had improved or disimproved. They all said the same; I did not make it up. I did not make up the quality of cattle deteriorating in our factories over the past two years. The volatility of the indices is an issue. A farmer could buy dear cattle into one's herd thinking he has five-star animals and within two years the animals could have one star. How would the Deputy feel if he went out and paid €5,000 or €6,000 for those animals?