Mr. Pat McCormack:

To touch on the fertiliser register, it is a huge level of burden and responsibility for farmers into the future. They talk about a closing of inventory and fertiliser on farm on 15 September. Without the best predictions in the world, if Daisy, the old cow, happens to die on the 16th, you may find yourself overusing fertiliser between then and the end of December, even though you spread no chemical fertiliser, purely as a result of the demand out there on farm. To the Deputy’s point on the importation of fertiliser, it is anti-competitive. It does everything possible to add bureaucracy and reduce the chances of a farmer going across the Border to bring in fertiliser at a right price, which we can see in 2023 could be substantially less than what was available here in the January-February-March period.