Mr. Barry Lynch:

From the beginning, we have taken data from the State systems and brought it back to the farm system for management purposes. Our job was to collect data on the farm and send it to the State. The State can get the other data available and send them back to us. We work with data on the farm level and we provide management solutions. We see a clear division between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which is driven by legislation and e-Government, and the commercial side of it, which involves commercial farmers using commercial software. That is more to do with the ICBF and Teagasc. There is a clear divide between the two.

In terms of exporting software, it is very difficult for us to figure out what to do when there is such focus on State services in the Republic of Ireland moving into this area. Moving onto page 7 of our document, we have been talking to the people in Teagasc, the ICBF and the Department for years. Two or three years ago, we asked them what they wanted us to do. We could see the pressure coming from the State for years and we wanted to know where they saw us fitting into this scenario. One of the paragraphs I wonder about is the second last paragraph on page 7. The Department represented Teagasc and the ICBF. We asked about the limitations and the Department's reply was that, in respect of imposing limitations on the services provided by the Department, Teagasc and the ICBF, the Department did not believe it would be in the best interests of Irish farmers and the agriculture sector to enter into any agreement that would limit innovations by the three organisations.

We must consider where we work in an environment such as that. Does everything connected with ICT, software and farming belong to the State? Does this mean that we should not do it anymore, even though we used to do it? Both companies are investing at the moment as we are reluctant to give up. The statement suggests we should give up but we are reluctant to do so because we have two loyal client bases. They pay us an annual maintenance fee to provide ongoing services.

We are investing because we know we can export our service. Much of the work done on the grassland management software on the web, which is the same model the Government wants, including central databases and web browser access, is what we are selling abroad. We are only exporting for the past year or two but 50% of our new clients come from abroad. We are getting to the stage where 50% of our clients could be from outside the Republic of Ireland. We cannot understand how, as a nation, we want little companies to export, but all of the innovations in agriculture belong to the State. This must be thought through a little better. Are there situations where this is not the correct approach? If one agrees with that statement, one is happy with the current situation.