Mr. Michael Moloney:

At 150 ha, it is very niche. It is not widely grown. The maximum area grown was around 300 ha. I would not agree we are dismissive. There are difficulties with this crop that do not occur with any other crop. If I wanted to grow a crop of oilseed rape tomorrow morning - it is a bit late for that now - or if I wanted to grow a crop of maize tomorrow morning, I could get seed and a contractor or, if I had my own gear, put it in the ground and harvest it. Hemp is a completely different crop and it is not treated the same way. Farmers have to apply for a licence, which is only a one-year licence and only allows them to grow the crop for certain purposes. The representative organisations would contend that the most valuable parts of the crop are prohibited. I have said from the outset, and I have to continue to repeat myself, that is not within the remit of this Department to tell farmers they can now grow it for whatever reason they want or that they do not need a licence.

We can give our opinions, if asked, about that and we will. Mr. Mac Aodháin may have engaged with them more than I have, but I have met representative bodies and given them whatever support they need.

The crop is eligible under the basic payment scheme, so people are able to draw payment on that. With the tillage incentive scheme we announced earlier in the year, land that had hemp grown on it last year is eligible if an eligible crop is put on it this year. It would be eligible for that €400 payment in that case. Dr. O'Mara has outlined the funding the Department has put in, and in total that is certainly a significant amount of money that is being put into research for the crop.

Again, when we have asked about scalability and feasibility, it ultimately gets down to getting growers to plant the crop. It comes down to brass tacks and whether somebody will make a comparable or better income from this than what he or she may be doing. Those figures must be substantiated. To be fair to the representative bodies, they are enthusiastic about this and said there would be demand for 10,000 ha or this, that and the other. A business proposal must be developed.