Mr. William Murphy:

Teagasc predicts that we will be back making profits next year. It is important to note that, as drastic as it is, this is a short-term situation. To bring it back down to farmer level, the average-sized farm in Ireland is predicted to haemorrhage €500,000 this year. For any individual farmer to be haemorrhaging this amount of money is unsustainable. If a farmer goes under we would be looking at the loss of seven jobs on the farm and another 53 indirect jobs. This would also lead to a loss of €6.5 million in exports. It is important to realise that farms of this size are generally sustainable. We have all been through and come out of a hog cycle. These are unprecedented times. We are 30% behind where we need to be to survive in the coming months given the price of pigs. Hopefully this will close in time. Teagasc has predicted it will happen next year but we hope it will come a bit sooner. To give an idea of the level of support today, we have heard about the €20,000 and the €70,000 packages coming to farmers. They will just cover the losses for April and May. We went to the Government looking for an aid package to support us for a year. We are a long way off the mark.

There has been speculation about a reduction in the herd. The farmers who phoned me earlier said that this is a non-runner. Something that has been successful for pig farmers over the years, and a reason we have weathered many storms, is that we have been extremely efficient. This proposal would take away one of our tools as it would leave 10% of our facilities lying idle. These are facilities that cost €1 million. It is not sustainable.

I am slightly disappointed with the lack of understanding the Government has shown in respect of the whole situation. We have failed to address the situation with the level of money that has been offered. Trying to tie in stipulations on a reduction in production on farms is a real misunderstanding of how Irish pig farming works.