Mr. Michael Murphy:

I largely agree with what Deputy Ó Cuív said. As dairy farmers we are price takers.

As Deputy Deering suggested, input costs have increased very substantially. If 75% of the diet is grass, it is cheap and within one's control. I am strongly suggesting that people control what they can and be less exposed to extremely dear inputs. In Northern Ireland, there is a fair amount of evidence that dairy farmers average 85 hours per week right throughout the year, and not just in busy periods. Teagasc did a survey and it suggested such farmers get approximately €5 per hour return for their capital, labour and management. They cannot afford to hire other people. There are more financial problems on the approximately 4,000 dairy farms in Northern Ireland than there are on all other farms on the island of Ireland. We should learn cheaply from some of the mistakes they have made so as not to repeat them. In a year like this there will be incredible stress on some of those farms.

A point was made about new entrants, capital costs and so on. It is not something that anybody can control but I advise anybody going into beef, sheep or tillage farming to spend at least a year or two on very good dairy farms. It would be a fantastic investment of anybody's time, as that person could avoid so many mistakes. If a person is investing in all the bells and whistles but if the skills are not good and he or she is hit with a year like this one straight off, that person would be very exposed. It is important to have really good training systems for young people coming into the industry. That will lead to good outcomes in all sorts of areas and one would get a better return on training than any other single element.

I cannot comment on the liquid milk system and it is probably more of an ICOS issue. I am not involved with it. I can comment on inputs. We are a pretty expensive country when it comes to buying farm inputs. The same drugs that could cost €75 here might cost €20 in Missouri in the United States. Some of these drugs might be made in Ireland but there seems to a policy of pricing according to the market. With human health medicines, for example, perhaps the State has not got the best value in certain areas, and that may be the case in certain areas in dairy farming. I am surprised farm organisations have not tackled that area a bit more. The Government cannot do much but farm organisations could do quite a bit.