Mr. Angus Woods:

I was not present at the time but the IFA was the group that lobbied and pushed the hardest for the formulation and establishment of the beef forum to get the key industry representatives around the table with everyone discussing the key problems in the sector. That was the intention. We have missed only one of the meetings, which was the last one. We chose not to attend it for obvious reasons. Farming suffered a long and hard year, specifically in the beef sector. We had everything from rain, snow and drought. We wanted key issues put on the agenda of the beef forum relating to price, suckler cows and Brexit. If the Minister was not willing to put key issues on the agenda, we felt we had to highlight them outside the door. We would have preferred to have been inside, where we had been for all the meetings bar that one, but not if key farm interests were not going to be addressed. It is not death by PowerPoint every meeting.