Mr. Cormac Healy:

Last year, 3.6 million pigs were processed in plants in the Republic. In 2018, that figure was just short of 3.4 million, so there has not been a significant increase in recent years. Over the past decade, there has been a good increase in productivity levels in the pig processing sector. Much of that has been down to the work of farmers in terms of genetics and the development of their breeding and management processes. This has given rise to a situation where they have increased the number of pigs per sow per year, which has driven the increase in productivity. According to Teagasc's figures, there are approximately 145,000 sows. That number has remained largely constant or even contracted a little over the past decade. The real gain has been through breeding, management and pigs per sow per year.