Mr. Niall Cody:

There is active engagement in that area. We have met the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, in the past few months. I note the agriculture committee had a session about it last week. It would be useful to set out some of the challenges we have in respect of the VAT 58 process. The VAT 58 scheme is based on an order – a statutory instrument regulation, essentially – that effectively dates back to 1972. It is based on the typical farm arrangement in 1972. It provides that VAT will be repaid to unregistered farmers in respect of construction, extension, alternation or reconstruction of farm buildings or structures, fencing, draining and reclamation of farmland. The only real change was in 2012, for the construction and-or installation of qualifying equipment for the purpose of microgeneration of electricity for use in a farm business. We have a scheme that is essentially 50 years old. In the intervening period, farming has changed radically. It is not as labour intensive and there are not farm labourers. It is highly automated. The area where most of the challenges are - the dairy sector - has gone highly mechanised and highly robotic. The scheme is not legislating for practices. At the agriculture committee, we were asked about us standing in the way of the modernisation of farming and standing in the way of health and safety expenditure in farmer. We are not; we are implementing the legislation as we have it. There are challenges about amending the legislation because-----