Mr. Brian Rohan:

On that point, rather than looking for the cheapest bag of carrots or the cheapest litre of milk, we need consumers to be prepared to pay a little bit more for the product they are buying and to give more thought to the extra, say, 10 cent per litre they pay going directly to the farmer as opposed to the shareholders in the co-operative and so on. On the question of what would happen if we were not operational in the morning, we initially set up Embrace FARM to facilitate a remembrance service on the last Sunday of June, which was to be held annually. That was it. We had a great PR person behind us. He got us into the newspapers and on radio and television interviews. I am not a person who likes public speaking, and never have done, even when I was at school. My father, Lord have mercy on him, was into public speaking, but I am not. However, I just had to step up and do it. We were receiving emails at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. from widows telling us their life stories. As stated, in one particular email, which was two or three pages long, a widow set out her life story to us as strangers. Her partner of many years was killed. They had two children. The bank accounts were immediately frozen. She had a good job, but the farm needed to be looked after. In fairness, her partner's brothers came on board and supported her 100%. They also engaged with the co-operative and got it the co-op name changed into her name so that when the corn was cut she would get the money from the corn to give her some sort of income. It took six years for her to get her bank account opened. Her partner was a contractor and so there was money owed, but she does not think she got half that money. The genuine customers paid up for bailing or cutting corn and so on, but an awful lot more walked away. She then had to hire two solicitors, one to represent her and the other to represent her two children. One third of the farm was required to be held in trust for the two children until they reached 18 years of age and she got the remaining two thirds, but she did not know if her son would be interested in farming. At the moment, he wants to be a contractor like his father was. He is currently 21 years of age and he is starting into the contracting game.

Again, for the past few years it has been all about developing farms and pushing on as the production of milk quotas is gone. If you walk into the bank and get approval for €500,000 loan you must take out life cover on that loan, which you cancel the following week. I have said previously at meetings that if you borrow €500,000 you are responsible for it and if you are not here next week the family is responsible for it, but if a person has life insurance the loan is taken care of. It is one less worry for the family at a time when they are grieving. That might be something that requires to be changed by the banking sector. In other words, if a farmer borrows, be it €100,000 or €500,000, life cover must be put in place and cannot be cancelled.