Mr. Enda Monaghan:

I suppose I can see other farmers going in and going out after four or five years, and it seems to be grand for the first couple years. Certification cost is a big thing. It is probably a bit of an unknown if a person is brought up as a conventional farmer and is used to putting out fertiliser. He or she is going against the grain by not doing that. It is a small bit of the unknown as well. Maybe a bit more education would help.

Is organic promoted enough? It is not promoted in Ireland. I was on to people in the Agricultural Awareness Trust and they said that the market is Europe. They do not want to talk about Ireland. They said that the big market is in Europe, and it is worth €22 billion. We only have between €100 million and €115 million here in the organic sector. The big market is in Europe. I still say that we are so small that if our own local butcher had no impediment or barrier put in front of him, he would be buying one lamb from me every week and it would be the same thing with every other lad around the country. It would be more than enough and our own Irish people could buy it. At the moment, they do not want to help the Irish wholesaler or butcher. If they did that and then if we grew, they could not talk.