Mr. Liam Hanrahan:

That is fine. It is about having a discussion and encouraging that. It is a carrot as opposed to a stick approach. There would be a massive uptake if the leaser, or the older farmer leasing out his or her land, had security. That farmer would have security that the lease would work out. The young farmer would take it on with a guarantee that he or she would implement these measures. It is hitting two birds with the one stone. All that would be asked for in exchange would be greater incentives for the young farmer in terms of installation aid and access to unsecured finance at a reasonable rate and a reasonable amount, given what would be required in a lot of these cases. Many of the farms coming up for lease are not exactly top-class farms. We have to do things rights, especially when it comes to hitting environmental targets. Slurry storage is one of the major issues. In the case of many of these farms, they might not exactly be compliant but the young farmer could come in and sort that out. There would have to be a proposal, involving a proper structured financial reward, put together for the leaser and leasee.

I personally think it would be a very good model that would have significant uptake. Our land mobility service would be there to help and assist with this process and allow the young farmer to put together proper business proposals to give the bank, landowner and all parties involved the confidence that this would work out. It is understandable that a landowner would choose to lease to someone with a long-term track record of land leasing. With a proper structured proposal in place, however, it would get major uptake.