Mr. Eddie Punch:

Yes, what we hear from members paints a negative picture of what is going on. There are a number of factors involved. The store purchasing sector got burned last year. As we discussed earlier this year the sector is showing a bit of reluctance around it. That will inevitably feed back to the farmers in the west supplying those kind of store lambs. Some of them are hill lambs and crossbreeds and some of them are just store lambs would say from lowland west of Ireland farms, so that is going to have a negative impact.

Nitrates obviously will also be an issue. Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned this earlier. While it will not necessarily have a direct impact, sooner or later, the demand for land as a consequence of nitrates is going to feed in, in areas like Wexford, Roscommon and the midlands. It may not have so much of an effect in the west because they are not as affected by nitrates. Inevitably, that will feed through so I would say the prospects are not positive.