Mr. Shane Fitzgerald:

I will make a comment about the employment that organic creates, an issue on which Mr. Keane touched. Macra na Feirme is not against organic farming. It sounds great when you hear Dr. Moore speaking about different ways to support the economy and provide employment. However, it is very difficult to get people to do that type of work. As Dr. Moore mentioned, it is labour intensive. As a farmer on the ground, it is sometimes impractical and that is the biggest problem. Farming is tough. It requires long hours and physical work. It is becoming harder to get people to do that type of work and more often that not, you are relying on people from eastern Europe or other places to do that work because Irish people will not do it. If any of the committee members have children, they will know that many young people do not want to do the hard graft and labour, the long hours and weekend work. The whole area around labour is probably the biggest barrier to farmers going into organic farming. The difficulty is in attracting not only skilled labour but also people willing to do manual, physical labour. Many dairy farmers find it difficult to get people to milk their cows, never mind to go weaning for hours on end. It is difficult. If something happens, the market is not there and you end up getting paid a conventional price after you have put long hours and hard work into producing a premium product, it is difficult to justify. I am speaking as a farmer on the ground. There are many barriers there. It all sounds great in theory but from a practical point of view, it is difficult and there are high barriers for farmers to get over.