Mr. Edmond Phelan:

I will also comment on the nomad issue. I have always been of the opinion that it suits the processor very much. The same processors seem to process the majority of stock in the UK and here. It suits them to keep Irish cattle prisoners in Ireland. They can keep the price down. They have many ways of doing that with their own feedlots and so on. They control the market completely. Recently, we have seen factory-fit cattle being sold in the marts. They had no bother paying the equivalent of €4.20 or €4.30 per kilogram. Yet, they are only prepared to give €3.70 to the farmer directly. It is anti-competitive, as Mr. Punch said. However, I do not know what can be done about it.

Funnily enough, we do not say there is such a thing as nomad sheep despite the number coming the other way. The committee knows what I am getting at.