Dr. Mike Johnston:

I will reinforce Senator Joe O'Reilly's point on the importance of, for example, Lakeland Dairies. It is not only important to Cavan and Monaghan. Lakeland Dairies buys approximately half of the milk produced in Northern Ireland. It has four processing plants here. It is a very important part of the dairy industry here and in Northern Ireland.

In summing up, the single most important issue for us is the island of Ireland issue. This is because of its great importance to dairy farmers throughout the island of Ireland and the rural communities with which they are involved. It is the single most important issue for us. We are very grateful for the work the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and his colleagues have been doing to keep this issue to the fore and to get the EU to address it in the way we believe necessary. We need a decision at the political level within the EU to designate that mixed-origin product as an EU product. If we could do that, it would break the logjam and allow us to get on and find the solutions. In the first instance, however, we need that decision to be taken at the political level.