Mr. Sean Coughlan:

There are consequences on both sides. If I go to a meeting of a group of commercial farmers who will go out next week to buy a bull and ask them if they want to know what the index will be today or next week, they will only want to buy the animals on the index will be next week. That is the harsh reality. We are not a lobby organisation. My personal view is that farmers should not be unreasonably impacted. If there are cows in calf to the bulls that have dropped, I think they have acted in good faith. The Department of agriculture is the sole arbiter of the terms and conditions of the schemes.