Mr. Martin Keane:

It is a challenge. A lot of work is being done with Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF, on the genomic improvement of the national herd. Parts of the beef industry, in some areas of the country, tend to be people involved in part-time farming. We need a substantial knowledge transfer programme to ensure that these people move into the area of cattle breeding, etc. and get the most profitable breed crosses that will convert into protein. Such work will be challenging. We are not here to sound the death knell of the Irish beef sector. The sector makes a huge financial contribution to the local economy and provides huge employment in rural towns where employment is fairly scarce. The quality of our beef products is recognised worldwide so we must ensure that we become efficient. This country is at the very top end of European efficiency in terms of emissions per kilo of beef produced. We could convince ourselves that we are not great but the fact is that we are very near the top of Europe in terms of performance. The metric applied is per unit of production, which must be at the centre of what we do. In terms of the beef genomic programme, a huge emphasis must be placed on knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer in order to bring the bottom quartile or third up to the top quartile performance, which is extremely profitable. I apologise to the Chairman for forgetting to answer his question earlier.