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

It was just before Christmas. We looked to see how we could help him and we were told clearly on the legal side of it that we have no investigative power. We need to be honest with the witnesses and build it up straight to them that, to be quite blunt about it, unless a Minister investigates, we will be ruled out of order. There is no point in leading them up the garden path.

In relation to fertiliser, there was a lot of fertiliser bought in at the back end of last year in places. In their opinion, what percentage was bought in? A lot of raw materials probably were bought in more a year ago or 18 months ago and they were here. Basically, there were a lot of stock and the stuff was not bought. In their opinion, are the materials that were here in stock that were not used last year being used? I suppose that raises a serious question. Were they inflated prices or is someone taking a massive hit at present on the prices that are shown?

It is interesting to see as well that there is fertiliser coming across the Border or coming from different parts. The Department has placed a stipulation on farmers that nearly makes them like an importer if they are to bring it in. I want to know their views on that. Are farmers aware that there are certain fertilisers coming out of certain parts that are not the same? One could buy 18-6-12 fertiliser in one part of the country and then buy it in another part of the country and it may not have the same make-up, even though it might be written on the bag. Are farmers aware of that?

Mr. Lynam talked about lime earlier on and my understanding is that two weeks before it closed, it was oversubscribed. I spoke to people in the Department and I understand that what was being done was that while they were not going to reduce the price, they were going to reduce the tonnage per farmer, although I am open to correction on that. Off the top of my head, €8 million of a budget was what was given. Given the amount of money there is at present, with the country having €8 billion or €10 billion extra, I am sure another €7 million or €8 million would not be hard to root out to make sure that people are covered in respect of the lime.

In the witnesses' opinion, what sort of a budget is required yearly? You can only throw on 2 tonne at a time to be prudent and if you do it for few years, you bring up the PH value of the soil. What sort of a budget would be required to give a proper liming programme to the farmers out there?