Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

At the depth of the crisis, we put a good deal of pressure on the Commission to open up what we thought we would never see again - the intervention buying-in of dairy products. That was done, I think successfully. It had the effect of putting a floor under the market, which was very useful. Second, we provided co-funding. We provided payments for farmers from money provided by the European Union and national funds. We provided payments of, I think, €1,360 per dairy farmer, with an €800 top-up for young farmers, on the back of moves at EU level, combined with national funding. The answer to the question is that we took action in terms of the markets, which action is always taken in co-operation with our EU partners as the market is managed at EU level. We made payments directly available to dairy farmers to support them during that difficult time. As the Deputy knows, prices have since recovered substantially and are now averaging 35 cent per litre.