Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Dairy Industry: (Resumed) Discussion

2:00 pm

Mr. Nigel Walsh:

To echo Mr. Cunningham’s point, the engagement with the farming community has generally been very good. We work with customers on a case by case basis, focusing on returning their businesses to viability and in the process saving jobs. We also have a very small number of instances where, as a last resort, we have used the full mechanism to secure the assets. This responds to Senator Comiskey’s point about the rigorous assessment at the outset to cover the long-term viability of the business and the number of variables at play. The number has been quite low in challenging times.