Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going by what the Department figures show. They indicate that of farms with more than 500 units, 529 are in derogation; of those with more than 400 units, 411 are in derogation; of those with more than 300 units, 928 are in derogation; and of those with more than 200 units, 1,074 are in derogation. These are some of the figures the Department has given us. I was trying to get my head around them. I agree fully with Mr. McCormack that a farmer with 30 or 40 ha should not have to reduce the number of cows by the amount referred to. It would make the farms unviable. We need to keep dairy farms at the level Mr. McCormack talked about, which is between 80 and 100 cows for a family farm. That would be my definition of a family farm in the west where farms are smaller. If we add up the numbers for farms with more than 200 cows, there are nearly 6,000 farmers who will be over the threshold. I consider a 500-cow dairy herd to be a commercial operation. Unfortunately, in many places, these are over villages.