Mr. John Enright:

To respond to Deputy Carthy, farmers have been listening for the past 40 years to talk about diversification. Unfortunately, there is no existing alternative enterprise which compares with dairy production. That is the reality. Our response to the people talking about diversification is that they must produce an enterprise model that will allow farmers to make a reasonable living. Unfortunately, it does not exist.

Turning to anaerobic digestion, the economic aspects of that system are not right yet and policy will have to move forward quickly to make such digesters economically viable for farmers. More broadly, we are looking at the nitrates regulations today, Ag Climatise was mentioned earlier and a new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, is also being introduced. Many farmers who will be expected to meet these new regulations will be the same people who are going to lose substantially under that new CAP programme.

Farmers are becoming frustrated that there is a major focus on environmental sustainability, which is understandable, but seemingly a complete absence of focus on economic sustainability. The economic sustainability of farmers must move up the agenda if we are going to deal successfully with the environmental aspects.