Mr. Kevin Cummins:

Deputy Ó Cuív asked about the milk production partnerships and the issue of joint and several liability. The issue is that the partnership is set up with unlimited liability. A typical scenario could be a young farmer starting off with little or no assets joining up with a farmer who would be at the other end of his career, owning quite a lot of assets. The ratio is wrong in terms of assets and in terms of responsibility. The Deputy pointed out, quite rightly, that the legal profession is in the same position. As we understand it, the lawyers and solicitors have got together and are in the process of trying to do some work on changing the legislation to correct this anomaly. The only example we have is in France where they operate partnerships under a GAEC scheme. They have changed the legislation in France to accommodate these partnerships.