Mr. Michael Curran:

What we really want is to level the playing field. What an uneven playing field looks like was best illustrated last week at an auction in Kilkenny. A farm of 235 acres went for €3.1 million. It was good land, no doubt about it, but the more open competition we have like that, the more seasoned campaigners will come in and bid on it. From the reports I read, it was a lot of locals bidding against each other. They were not members of Macra na Feirme. Maybe they were once but not anymore. What we are looking for is to take a proportion of whatever fund comes out next and ring-fence it. It does not matter if it a separate portion or part of the existing portion. It simply needs to be ring-fenced for young farmers and young businesses. The established businesses have the economic weight to outbid every young entrant and literally soak up all the land and soak up all the resources. We are also looking at bringing more women into farming. We would also suggest that there should be a proportion of funding ring-fenced for young women as well, to level the playing field as much as we can. The methodology is not that important. What is important is that younger people get an advantage they actually need to level the pitch.