Mr. Liam Moloney:

I would look at it from another viewpoint. The independent collectors made a commercial decision to go out into the market and provide a second service to farmers, as they were well entitled to do. They collected the plastic and now they have an obligation to move it on. When the market is good, obviously, we do not hear from the independent collectors but now the market has gone into a difficult position and they are seeking assistance.

If we were to give funding to independent collectors, in effect, we would be paying our competitors. Those guys are out there competing with our contractors, which would make our own contractors very unhappy as they have exclusive rights to collect in particular counties. It would also leave us open to a legal challenge as our contractors have contracts with us to be exclusive collectors in their areas. For those reasons, therefore, unfortunately, we would not be able to assist the independent collectors, although we very much sympathise with their position.