Professor John FitzGerald:

Any appropriate methodology would reflect the problems that people in rural areas face. If it did not, it would not be an appropriate methodology.

I will make a final point and then I think Ms Burke will say something about agriculture in her reply. On forestry, a very interesting study was done 30 years ago, I think, by Bob O'Connor, then deputy director of the ESRI, since deceased, and Brendan Kearney, then of Teagasc, which showed that if one switched from cattle to forestry - I am not saying forestry is the answer; it could be something else - employment in rural areas would actually be higher, not lower, in the medium term, which is interesting. Paid employment is important in the development of communities in rural areas, so I urge members not to write forestry off.