Mr. Eddie Punch:

I know that. It has always seemed to me that the battle in all of these cases has been how to make the move to scale up the business for exporting internationally. There have been no huge efforts on the part of Teagasc and Bord Bia to develop these markets or to develop the skills and supports that would be necessary. Any people who go milking sheep, and there have been a few in Ireland, have been very much pioneers who have had to educate themselves about it by travelling to European countries, such as the Netherlands, to get foundation stock and to milk Friesland ewes and that kind of thing. There has not been any of that. It is certainly something we will have to look at from an ICSA perspective. It is an area that is untapped and undeveloped. There is a lot of interest in sheep's milk and the products that can be made from it, and not only from the point of view that it is good protein and all of that. Many people who are not tolerant of dairy milk can use products that are based on sheep's milk, including cheeses, yoghurts and all that kind of stuff. There is a good reason for it in Ireland. We have a sheep sector but not a very profitable one. When we look at all of the sheep meat challenges, it is not simple.

I would make the point that it is disappointing there has not been more put into the marketing of sheep meat. The potential for sheep dairy is very much untapped. From our perspective, we would be interested in being involved in that.