Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank the Senator. I accept the lateness of the report. I was only notified last Thursday of my appearance before the committee today. To clarify, while we have had the reports for a while, we had to engage across Government to reach agreement to publish the reports; that was only agreed last week, which is why everything is a bit late. The notification was not very long for me. I accept the sense of frustration - I get it from all of the committee members - as well as the appearance that progress is not being made. We are making progress, albeit slowly. We have to tease these elements out. My Department has taken a lead by coming up with this working paper and hiring the experts. A lot of it lies outside our Department, as can be seen from the recommendations.

On where we can support research, I referred in my opening statement to our work with Teagasc - I may go to Ms Fay on that - in terms of the research going on. The mushroom sector is the most important element of this. It is hugely valuable. I know one or two mushroom producers and I know the stress and difficulties they have. However, the mushroom sector has been making good strides in trying to implement alternatives. Funding through the EU producer organisation scheme has delivered some promising results. I do not have the figures for the percentages - it is commercially sensitive so I cannot give particular details about what people are using and the percentages but-----