Mr. Francis Cassidy:

However, the market is being distorted by state aid. The market will pay whatever the market will bear; that is the economics in any field. A young farmer can apply for a bank loan for an extension to his farm or whatever. If he is going to plant the land, he will get a certain amount of credit whereas if he is going to try to farm, whether it is dairy, suckling or sheep production, he will get less credit because the figures do not add up and because of the sustainability of traditional farming methods as opposed to drawing down the loans over 15 years. The banks will favour a person extending their holding for forestry or will favour the people, the corporates, who are buying land. They can afford to give them more because they can sit back and wait whereas, as my colleague said, farm families need an income every year. In our area a neighbouring farm that was refused under the licensing system was sold for €2,200 an acre whereas if that had been approved for afforestation that would probably have been €5,000 an acre. That is the difference. That is the crux of the matter.