Mr. Micheál McGovern:

When the UK referendum result emerged, Commercial Mushroom Producers, CMP, devised a strategy. Sterling was losing value at an unprecedented rate. CMP formed a policy that involved the industry coming together to try to do what it possibly could to save itself in light of the free fall. In fairness, most of the industry has come together and given support. The marketing companies have given reasonable support, as much as they possibly can within the lines of their profit margins. One has given price support per kilogram. Another extremely good measure was price support in light of currency devaluation. The subvention did two things. First, it got money to growers immediately. Second, it was the first action to put a little confidence back in to the industry from the grower point of view. These actions and the actions of others from the supply base were necessary. They are holding the growers for a term. However, as Mr. Reilly had said, we have already lost three units and 150 jobs. Unfortunately, six more companies are not in a good financial position. I hope it will not happen but if we do not get some measures together quickly enough, we could lose a further 300 jobs. Action is needed now rather than what could or should happen. Deputy Martin Kenny referred to getting intervention from Europe. That is definitely a positive proposal and something that certainly should be done with a total push behind it. However, as we all know, when we go to Europe we are talking about time, and time is not on our side. We need assistance now. That is the reason we are coming up with these measures. These are measures we believe can be delivered in a relatively short time. Deputy Penrose made a comment in this regard. It is not enough to plug the full gap. The full haemorrhage is approximately €22 million, as someone said earlier, from where most contracts were negotiated to where we are now with the exchange rate. Of course, it is not enough but we have to start somewhere. We need to continue building and get confidence and keep the confidence for growers to hang in there. They have the sure and certain knowledge that our product is good enough to stand up to scrutiny in any supermarket. Certainly, the product is not a problem. It is a question of what we can do until we sail out of this storm. We need whatever help we possibly can get now or else we will have further haemorrhaging.