Mr. Tim Cullinan:

Yes. Last year, more than 60% of our exports went into the Chinese market, which is a substantial amount of pig meat. There was a lot of work done with the processing sector in Ireland to develop that market over the years, to give credit from that point of view. A great deal of work was done there. Now, there is a concern around China. Again, the Deputy is right. We need to keep evolving. We need to be seeking out newer markets continuously. That is the nature of the business. It is the same as any other sector in agriculture. The Deputy made the point about credit. He is right. It is very worrying at the moment. It is about farmers having the cash to pay for feed. It is as simple as that. The price that farmers are obtaining for their pigs at the moment will not even cover the cost of feed. Then there are all the other incidental costs after that. Therein lies the problem. The Deputy made the point that many farmers are giving up on going back and rebreeding sows. As I have said, according to the figures we have, 10% of those in the sector are leaving at the moment. If we cannot find a solution to this, we are being clearly told by Teagasc that we could see 30% of the farmers making that decision in the months ahead. That is how serious it is.

In response to Deputy Collins' comments on the funding package, he is right; we always acknowledge any funding that we get from the State. We understand that it is taxpayers' money. However, it just was not enough. We are talking about the enormous amount of credit that is involved in the sector. The number of farmers in the sector is very small. We acknowledge all of that. On the €13 million, if that funding is provided, we will always acknowledge that we are receiving taxpayers' money. However, it is not near the proposal that we have on the table. It is a huge concern for us. The reason that pig farmers have not been receiving CAP payments is because pig farming in Ireland is mainly based on a small number of hectares.

Prior to decoupling, farmers would not have had pigs in fields. Pigs were never included in the commonage farm plan payments anyway. That is not the issue we have. We want to continue running the businesses as we have been doing in the past but we are at a critical juncture and we need to get support from our Government to get the system up and running again.