Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the witnesses. For what it is worth, in another world I breed purebred Angus cattle. It is important to put that on the record.

What I have been told since the confusion of this episode arose is that it would suit me, but I am still not jumping out of my chair and I do not think it will suit anybody. While I was gesturing a minute ago, Mr. Coughlan said farmers were ringing him up and did not even know how this would affect them and had the wrong side of the stick. That is misinformation. I acknowledge the fact that Mr. Coughlan acknowledges that the ICBF has a communication problem, as he said, and that this was not communicated properly. As the old adage goes, however, when you are explaining, you are losing. If the ICBF wants to bring the dressing room with it, there must be communication.

Mr. Coughlan is also now promising a stakeholders' forum. That is cart-before-horse territory. If there is a need for a stakeholders' forum, it was needed before the changes were made. Even if nothing changed, even if we were in the same place today, the communication would have improved and people would have known the consequences of the changes. As Deputy Collins rightly said, whether the information the farmers are getting is correct or incorrect, if it is having an effect on their mental health and making them worry, it was a mishandled situation.

Chair, that is not where I intended-----