Mr. Tim Cullinan:

Any intervention by the Government or the State is always welcome. The pig sector is going through an extremely difficult situation at the moment. It is very impacted by the enormous increase in the price of feed, fuel and energy. It is a very serious situation and we will need more intervention from the Government. It is important that all stakeholders in the industry come together. It is about protecting a sector that is very vulnerable at the moment. I described where a number of vulnerable sectors are at the moment. We have seen a massive decline in the horticulture sector. We want to ensure we protect the pig sector going forward. Overall, there are 8,000 people involved or employed in the sector in Ireland. We have exports of almost €1 billion a year. It is very important as well that we have 50% of our produce sold here on the home market. That goes right back to the practice within the retail sector of using fresh pork as a loss leader and driving down the price. We need more measures from the Government and we also need legislation coming forward, which is the reason we are here this evening. It is a combination of funding and legislation and everybody in the chain working together.