Mr. John Hughes:

I welcome the opportunity to participate at the proceedings and I thank the committee for the invitation. I hope to meet them at further, future meetings. Today we will discuss the issues at hand in regard to the farm contractors and recognition of farm contractors in Ireland. We do not seem to get the recognition we would like from State bodies, that is, the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Finance regarding proposals we put forward to them. We look forward to members' questions after our presentation. I will pass over to Mr. Moroney now.