Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I cannot say. In my experience, the overall number of farmers has not changed significantly in my time in the Department. We had approximately 129,000 applicants for basic payments and we still have 129,000 or so applicants for basic payments. We have 3,000 to 4,000 new applicants coming in every year and 3,000 to 4,000 a year exiting the system. I cannot say how many employees were involved in processing or downstream industries 20 years ago. To be honest, I am not sure. Deputy Fitzmaurice might have the figure but I do not.