Mr. John Enright:

To add a few points to that, we have members who are milking cows and supplying milk to their local co-operatives today. Next November or December when they are drying off their cows, it will be decided whether they are going to be in band 2 or band 3 and that will have a very serious impact on the number of cows they have. People need to realise that this is the first time ever that dairy farmers are going to be forced to reduce stock numbers. In a lot of cases, these are very sustainable farmers. They can produce the grass for the number of cows they have in a very sustainable way but a decision has been taken that effectively completely undermines their ability to earn a living from farming. These are farmers with between 40 and 70 cows. People have a notion in their heads that derogation farmers are all very larger farmers but that is not the case. A large number of them have between 50 and 70 cows on small holdings and the derogation is critical if they are to continue in business. If they have to reduce cow numbers by between 10% and 25%, that is it for them; they are gone. I am not sure the politicians realise that, to be quite honest.