Mr. Liam Moyles:

It was founded in 1964 and the first graduates emerged in 1968. The association represents members who qualified through the farm apprenticeship scheme. At the time we had two schemes. The first was the three-year, full farm apprenticeship scheme which was augmented by one year in agricultural college. Students had three years of hands-on work, with block release and project work. We also tried to ensure they could do farm accounts, although grass budgeting did not exist at that time. Mr. Quigley is a graduate of the second scheme. Despite being farm managers, approximately 20% of the graduates of the farm apprenticeship scheme returned to farming. They were fortunate to be inheritors as it allowed them to return to family farms. The second scheme was the trainee farmer scheme, which was aimed at farmers who could not afford to do the full three-year scheme. Under this scheme, students did one year working on a master farm and two years supervised at home on their fathers' farms.

Until last January, the Irish Farm Managers Association represented graduates of the two apprenticeship schemes. However, the association's activities went flat for about eight years during the boom when little happened. Mr. Fitzgerald and the chairman of the association, Mr. Jim Treacy, who manages the Rockwell College farm and may be known to some members, reactivated the association and are trying to widen its net by attracting members from many of the other streams of education that are producing graduates who have the potential to be farm managers. We do not take a narrow approach.