Mr. John Enright:

To come back to Deputy Fitzmaurice, I certainly agree with him that this is a grab you by the neck effort. There is no doubt about that. On the first comment on peat soils, people have this impression that peat soils are non-productive. We have members milking cows, finishing cattle and sheep and growing tillage crops on peat soils. People do not realise that. They are making a huge contribution to the rural economy. People need to bear that in mind when talking about peat soils.

On the phase one of the land use being done, we are aware the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is doing work on land use and designation of soils but it has not provided us with the data behind that as of yet.

On the Life project, as a organisation, we are not directly involved but we would have members involved in Life projects and EIP projects. These are all voluntary. They work well and farmers co-operate with them. Farmers are treated with respect, which is important to say.

On working with farm organisations, our president and I were at the EMB general assembly in April and there was discussion about this land restoration law. It is one of many different laws that are impacting farmers at the moment. We have seen what is happening with the nitrates and with climate change. This is across Europe; there are the same issues in every country. It seems to be a raft of regulation after regulation, some impacting dairy farmers, some impacting sheep farmers and some impacting everybody. There are huge pressures on people and there is no appreciation of that. I think every issue has been covered.