Mr. Tadhg Buckley:

It is like the lad in Kerry who was asked for directions and said, "Well, if I was going there, I wouldn't start from here." However, we are where we are, to a large extent. We are in a situation whereby we have signed up to Article 12. When I say "we" have signed up, I mean the country has. We are in a situation now where we have to try to mitigate the worst impacts it could have. A working group has been set up and its first meeting was in mid-June. We met again yesterday. I am not breaking confidences when I say we have been asked to make submissions on what could be done by the end of July. It is a tight timeframe.

One thing I will say is that at least we are having an opportunity to consult on it this time around, which we did not have the last time, when the 220 kg per hectare was agreed to without any stakeholders being aware of it. That is certainly a much better situation than we were in previously. It will be very challenging, however.

We have got to look at it now and say we are where we are. We have signed up to Article 12. We will have to figure out what sort of alternatives we could put in place where we could still try to satisfy the Commission and alleviate this blunt instrument that has been put in place. From our perspective, we have been having discussions with our own members and representatives on what we can do from a sectoral perspective. We could look at putting in place additional actions farmers could take that do not have that substantial or significant income impact. There are measures we can take that can certainly achieve that without looking at the alternative of 220 kg, which we know will have a huge economic impact on farmers. We are where we are. We will have to figure out how we can make the best of a bad situation. That is what the working group is there for. It is-----