Mr. Jonny Greene:

Deputy Kenny asked about rural communities. We are looking at a system that is trying to reduce the cost of production. If we can do that we will make more money and if farmers can make more money they will stay on the land. Rural communities are massively important and we need young farmers to come through. Some traditional conventional farming methods are starting to fail us a little bit. We are looking to address that by controlling what is within our farm gate, rather than what is outside, be that the fuel price, the fertiliser price or any other input. We are relying on what we are doing ourselves and we feel we are being successful. More research is definitely needed, whether it is by Teagasc, UCD, WIT or Kildalton. Those organisations all have a role to play, as do we. On a worldwide basis, this is a farmer-led initiative and there is not a lot in it for the rest of the industry. It is going to be farmer-driven but we would love to have more consultation with the colleges. We may need to travel a bit too, to see how other guys are doing it.

On getting a premium for our produce, I do not think we are there yet, though we have spoken about it. Whiskey with a story is selling very well so it would be good if we would put a selling point on a few products. We have not got there yet and we want to measure things first, which is where UCD or Teagasc could come in because we do not have the resources to do it on farm. If we can validate the theory, perhaps we can go to the market and say something is worth an extra €1 or €2.