Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No. The Department approves applications to be an importer. As I said earlier, we have approximately 17 approved importers at the moment, between co-ops and others. Normally people will have a track record in previous import regimes. I think it is approximately 17 at the moment that have been approved. They are the best-placed people. They are in the marketplace and they have contacts from previous import regimes in that area.

I have dealt with Deputy Pringle's point, but it is an ongoing issue. We are in the middle of a Teagasc audit on the current state of play and what the shortfall will be. We will have a further one before the end of the year to quantify what exactly the shortfall is. I hope all these initiatives will close the gap of the deficit. That, along with other devices, will hopefully get us a resolution to this.