Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Well, it is true. People are getting out altogether and people are reducing in number. Will that have an impact on driving up the price of lamb for the consumer? I will qualify what is happening in that regard. Even part-time farmers who have jobs give a lot of time every week to dosing sheep. So much has to be done to them, and the cost of dosing and vaccinations has increased by 30%. Dipping, shearing and everything that is involved mean it is getting harder and harder to keep younger farmers at that job. While the old fellas are still at it because they do not know anything else, younger fellas are raring heifers for beef and dairy.

They are buying heifer calves. They see the way the upper part of the hills are going. You could see them now; there is stuff on them now that had not been on them before at all. They were eked down and they were kept right. Maybe the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and people like that might be glad about that, but in a few years when there is all of this growth, it will burn. That is invariably what happens to it. Something will start a fire and then it will be no good for anything.

The committee should be asking the Minister to try to subsidise the ewe. People are saying to me that they need €30 per ewe to ensure everyone does not get out of it. The representatives know, and I know it especially, that if one farmer goes out in early February with a fertiliser spreader, before the evening everyone around will have gone out. They will see that such a fellow got out of it and they will wonder what they are doing.

Are the witnesses in any way worried or concerned that too many people will get out of it? It is a tough game because it involves climbing mountains. I know they have quad bikes, but there are parts of these places where you could not travel with any quad bikes. Good dogs are harder to get and people do not have the time to train them. You cannot do much around sheep without a good dog. They are costly to get. Are our guests concerned about this development? I see it happening and I am being told it is happening. Are they worried that it will have an adverse impact on their businesses? I refer especially to Meat Industry Ireland. Are they concerned about that?