Ms Niamh Brennan:

There could be a few small initiatives and baskets at a local level, but I am not aware of any large-scale initiatives. The Senator mentioned that the 7% can be seen as low-hanging fruit. On the horticulture side in particular, this can be quite easily achieved by tackling the staffing and labour crisis. That is the main priority. We could work on the specs in the retailers and on the plant protection products but if we do not have skilled labour next year to pick the product, we will have more waste and we will see that figure increase. That is the big issue. I want to stress the importance of the seasonal work permit scheme being speeded up as fast as we can. We are in a situation now where the horticulture sector has no access to any permits. We are awaiting the outcome of the review of the occupations list. I am aware that there were more than 130 submissions on that this year, whereas normally there would be 30 to 35. We think that will be finalised within the next month. Until that decision is made, the best-case scenario would be if we could be on the critical list. If not, we will need a new allocation of general work permits in January.