Mr. Pat McCormack:

I am involved in the dairy vision and beef vision groups. The Deputy asked for numbers and I will give him approximate numbers. The difference between 22% and 25%, if there were to be a cull of dairy cows alone, would equate to somewhere around 145,000 or 150,000 cows. If it was just suckler cows, the figure would be somewhere between 210,000 and 220,000, so the difference between 22% and 25% amounts to a substantial cut to our national herd. It will have an impact on rural economies and farm families - there is no doubt about that - yet leaders in this country say we are not facing a national cull. What are we facing in that case? We are facing nitrates and cow bending. It is a cull by another name - simple as that. Nobody is being fooled by the idea that we are not undergoing a national cull.

The fertiliser register is another layer of bureaucracy for farmers that will dictate how much or how little they can spread. They are going to have to pay a nitrate planner to know. The system will not be live, so when people go into a store, they will not know whether their allocation has been bought. If we exceed our requirements by 5 kg or 50 kg, it will be an opportunity to penalise us. It is a further level of inspection on farms.

As regards land designation, I call that sterilisation for some people. They have found themselves not in a position to farm the land and make an honest living and not in a position to sell it. The banks do not want to use it as collateral in order that they can purchase land somewhere else to go about their business.

As for anaerobic digestion, that conversation is for the era when we face towards 2040 rather than 2030, particularly given the performance of our planning legislation in recent years. We would want to put in dryers to dry milk rather than digesters to process various materials to provide energy. I do not see there being a result regarding digesters between now and 2030. There are many things we could do that would deliver, but the inventory is hugely frustrating for our sector. As Mr. Punch said, if a tree is planted, it goes to land usage, or if a solar panel is put up, it goes to energy. It is hugely frustrating.