Mr. Conor Mulvihill:

I thank the Senator for the question. The figures are really scary. Last year, across the island, we lost the equivalent milk pool of Aurivo Co-Op. This is one of the biggest companies in the north west. We accept this figure is dissipated across the island and we are looking at it again. The Chairman acknowledged that weather was a big issue and we do hope to recover. The stats are very stark with the figure of 9%. We do hope to recover, with the help of God, with the good weather, perhaps good sentiment coming back and the dairy markets recovering. However, the costs are phenomenal. It is not just the milk cheque; it is the aggregated cost. The EY report in the appendices is not just about that but about what that is supporting. It is not just the money going into farmers' milk cheques. It is the vet, the contractor, the feed merchant and everything else.

My last point, before I hand over to my chairman to talk about the manufacturing implications, is that this money is removed from places in Ireland that do not have BioPharmaChem, Google or Facebook. It is removed from Kanturk, from Ballymee in west Cork or from Ballaghaderreen in Sligo. Money cannot be taken from the likes of these places.