Ms Eimear McGuinness:

I am just the mart manager in Donegal. I am sure the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society has had talks with different bodies. I believe it has met the Minister of State, Deputy D’Arcy, and I hope this issue was discussed with him. I am bringing it to the table today because it is necessary. I hope maybe it would start here. If we can get nothing else out of today's meeting we need that. It has to happen. Where would I get the money to start making more changes in the mart? I do not know how much safer I can make it. I could put in extra cameras but that would cost another few thousand euro. There are health and safety issues. I met a company recently that will go through all our human resources for more insurance costs. It would protect us and do our health and safety work for us. That would cost us is in the region of €3,000 or €4,000. Where do I come up with all this money? At the same time there is no way around it. I know that is what the insurance companies will ask us to do this year. I have not received my renewal notice although I asked for it. The table I gave the committee dates from the end of 2014 but we are discussing 2018. My insurance does not expire until July.

I do not know how much my premium will be. Some other marts are in the same position. I hope the Government will do something about that.