Mr. Shay Phelan:

The issue of costs probably comes to me. The Deputy is right that the costs have increased substantially. I presented figures at the crisis meeting in Killashee a couple of weeks ago. One of the things that is hurting tillage farmers at the moment is the cost of land rental. There are no two ways about that. The figures I shared on the night showed that on your own land, you can make a profit, albeit a modest profit compared with what it would have been even two or three years ago. Where you take rented land into the mix, the profitability goes. You are eating into your single farm payment. Perhaps there is something to be done in terms of policy. Perhaps there could be tax incentives around leasing land for tillage farming or something like that. Perhaps that could be considered. That is just a suggestion.