Mr. Martin Stapleton:

It is much easier for the farmers I know to bring in somebody who would speak their language to operate in their business so it is out of desperation that they want to bring in foreign workers. I would regularly hear farmers who have taken on workers from eastern European countries speak about the difficulty they have not only in teaching them the business but in trying to teach them the language, but it is far better than not having anybody to do the work. We would be delighted if we had Irish workers who were interested and wanted to pursue a career in agriculture and it is because we cannot get them that we are looking for foreign workers. That also applies to European workers. The supply of workers that traditionally came from Poland, Lithuania and from down as far as Romania has dried up in the past year or two.