Mr. Clive Carter:

The Chairman said he thought the future of the sector was in energy. He suggested we should focus on energy and use the by-products for food. I think that is the wrong way to go. Energy is at a certain price per kilowatt-hour. However, if we push premium product, and market and process it, we can add value at each step. It was suggested that we do something different that we did not do previously; I believe that is what we are doing. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We need to do something different, add value to what we are producing, do what we do and do it better rather than just completely turning things on their head. There is still potential to produce energy from crops, but we should try to focus it more on by-products and areas after food production.

Deputy Mulherin spoke about whiskey. If there is a price for a product, the demand will be filled; it is simple economics. For an extra €40 a tonne, they would get all the barley they want and vast acreage of other crops would be put into barley. In my area in Laois, there has been a complete turn the other way. It used to be a complete malt area and has gone more towards fed grains because people think there is more money in feed grains at the moment. However, if there was an incentive to grow malt barley that area would turn around again and we could produce the extra barley for distilling.

She asked whether on a scientific basis we had any issues with GM products. We think it relates more to marketing. There are potential benefits to GM. We are not fully aware of everything but there are issues as well. It not just a blanket statement that GM products are easier for farmers to grow and that all farmers would prefer to grow GM products. As we have seen in America and elsewhere, there are problems down the road with GM products. That said, there have been big changes with GM. It is not from a farming point of view, but from a marketing point of view. An all-Ireland non-GM island is the way for us to go. We have a niche market and we should encourage that.