Dr. Conor O'Mahony:

I will address the Senator's question on payments and then I will hand over to Dr. Barrett for most of the other questions. In terms of how payments are processed, reactors are disclosed at a test. A farmer is then contacted to choose a valuer of their choice.

A valuer comes out, values the animals and submits that valuation so that can either be appealed by the farmer or the Department. Then reactors are removed.

At the moment, the average time for reactors to be removed is between 17 and 18 days. It is more or less consistent with last year. On payment, we do payment runs every week. Payment runs issue, generally, assuming all necessary paperwork is supplied by the farmers. He may have to supply, if he is a dairy farmer, milk recording details, etc., to the valuer for the valuation to be complete. For 15 cows to have been removed in September and payment not made yet is unusual. The Senator can give me more details afterwards but, generally, that would be the exception. We have good, strong systems in place and they do work with regard to processing the payments. I cannot speak to that person but if the Senator might give me details later on, that would be fine.