Mr. Kieran Dunne:

I go back to Deputy Browne's question on the Departments. We as a group, and I personally, have been in touch the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the horticulture sections within that Department, and with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on a daily and weekly basis. We started out on this issue four or five months ago and we have been fair, experienced, understanding and professional. I must say that all of the Departments have been equal to that. They have not ignored us. The situation is so difficult. They have not ignored us, but we have not made progress. We have not made one ounce of progress moving forward. To be fair, it is not easy to resolve this situation. We have resolved so many other difficult issues that it is not impossible to resolve it. It was mentioned earlier that where there is a will there is a way. All we want is the will.

We as an industry have bought into all aspects of government by way of policy, support and working on all aspects of growing our industry, both locally and on the export market, so there is a will on the part of our industry to work together. I work very closely with the Department, and as of 8.40 a.m. - we were on our test call at 8.45 a.m. - there was no further update from the three different Departments, or will we call them the three musketeers? At this point in time there is no progress. I think someone mentioned earlier urgency. There was urgency five months ago, so this is certainly urgent at this point in time.