Mr. Liam Dunne:

It would appear that 60% of the land affected is owned and 40% is rented. Many of the growers involved are relatively small because that is the nature of farming in the western sector, and these growers are growing crops on their own land. In the past couple of years, when growers have been running very tight margins and depending on good yields to compensate for poor prices, they have always been worried that the year will come when the yields do not work and the prices are poor. That is what has happened to these people. It is a once in 30 year event as far as weather is concerned, and has not been seen since the 1980s. I was very taken aback when I went down to some of the fields in Galway and Roscommon in September. As members will know, our sense of smell makes for the strongest memories, and I had not got that smell of rotting grain in a field since 1985. I have to admit I was quite taken aback and shaken by it. It is horrible to be out in a crop that is literally rotting under one's feet. Those people are in very serious difficulty.