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

Staying on education, I looked at the numbers going back over the years and there were some years when there were low numbers. I think there were 1,700 or 1,800 doing the likes of the green certificate. What does that equate to down the road in farming? Are we holding our own? Dr. Butler mentioned the 50 years of EU membership. The numbers of farmers have gone backwards since we joined. I think we had 300,000 farmers at one stage and we have roughly 130,000 now. The EU is not all guns and roses.