Mr. Eddie Punch:

We also sound a note of caution on the cost of doing business and the impact that has on competitiveness. Much thought is put into cutting costs every single day by farmers. For example, we call for an immediate reduction of 10% in electricity costs, which are a huge burden on the sector. The Government must be much more proactive with ComReg in terms of examining how to drive down costs in areas in which they have some influence. We seem to be very quick to increase costs in quasi-public-sector utilities but not as conscientious about bringing them down.

The Government has been largely unable to tackle the issue of public sector pay as a result of the limitations of the Croke Park agreement. In our view a disproportionate amount of cuts are being made to vital schemes across all Departments, but this includes farming schemes, front-line services and capital investment, which has been hit more than current expenditure. That is unsustainable. The Government will have to face up to issues such as increments and allowances in the public sector. Farmers could rightly argue that payments from schemes such as the disadvantaged area scheme, DAS, and the rural environment protection scheme, REPS, form part of their core pay. There is a clear sense that this crisis is not being tackled in an equitable way at the moment.