Mr. Sean McNamara:

Last winter left farmers in dire straits. They have no income. As Mr. Farrell said, everyone spent everything they had on fodder and looking after their stock and they have no income for themselves. They are putting their stock before themselves. This has left farmers in a very bad mental state of fear. In fairness, many farmers do not know how to look for farm assist. They do not have the mental well-being to go and look for it. This is a big problem at the moment. With no viable income in farming at the moment and with the way things are going, I can see us losing a generation of farmers.

Younger people coming along will not take up fartming.

The younger people coming along will not take up farming. They will walk away from it. They will see us older lads farming and getting no viable living from it. We have to seriously look into farm assist for farmers and bring in a system that is practical and easy to fill in the forms to get the farm assist because an awful lot of men are in dire straits out there at the moment. The issue of mental well-being is serious. People do not know which way to face or who to turn to and that is the big problem. We need to get that out there once and for all, and right away. That is all I can say.