Professor Alan Renwick:

I do not have them to hand, but I suspect that the Deputy's intuition is correct, that the age profile of those involved in sheep and beef farms would be higher than those in dairying. Given the requirements of dairy farming, the fit is better with a younger person.

The Chairman raised the issue of markets, to which I did not respond. We have tended to focus on policy, but a key issue is what the market can sustain in making beef production profitable. There are key challenges, relating to market structure, a fair distribution of value through the chain and ensuring there is sufficient competition, something which Mr. Bryan has touched on. In my first presentation in Ireland, when I said farmers should be looking to the market more, I was then set a series of homework by Justin McCarthy, the editor of the Irish Farmers' Journal on what consumers would have to pay for beef to justify a return if support payments were to be ignored. I understand his inference. We are talking about considerable price rises for consumers of beef. There is a danger that one may price beef out of the market. One is in a difficult situation. One may get a higher price for the product but people may eat less of it. If one is exporting the product to a wider range of people, however, more people will eat it.