Mr. John Bryan:

We are proposing that the Government should target resources. The most pertinent point made by Professor Renwick was on the tipping point. When one passes the tipping point, the cost of repairing it is huge. We passed the tipping point on sheep and lost 1.5 million sheep. We lost critical mass, so at certain months of the year we are barely able to be effective in France. We have fallen out of that market.

In the suckler area, Bord Bia has spent a fortune getting into Germany. We have lost 100,000 sucklers. Anyone who has spoken to people in any parish in Ireland knows that many of them are at the mental tipping point. It depends which way they go. We are well aware of the current economic climate. We feel that the return of a suckler welfare scheme would promote better practice and provide good value for the taxpayer. If we pass that tipping point, jobs will be lost. That is what we are proposing.