Mr. Pat McCormack:

I will start where Senator Mulherin finished with the question about the beef task force. It is regrettable that we had scenes outside the gates of factories and that it came to that. We need to get that task force up and functioning. Immediately after this engagement with the committee, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, are going to have a bilateral discussion with the task force chairman, as I am sure other organisations will be doing in the coming days or maybe have done already. What was in the agreement must be delivered for farmers. Any movement on specifications without the four-month notification period cannot be tolerated and, equally, we need to be sure that the transparency that was promised is delivered. Mr. Healy and I were with Bord Bia this morning and work on that index is ongoing and has been up and running since 19 September. It must be approved by the task force in order that it can be out there but it needs to be out there for farmer confidence.