Mr. Patrick Byrne:

Yes, I can elaborate on the agricultural inspections programme. Previously, local authorities undertook inspections under the GAP regulations. The number of inspections had decreased considerably. It was identified that compliance levels were not where we would like them to be. A plan was put in place to increase the resource of inspectors in the local authorities and dedicate them to inspection of farms. As Dr. Cotter pointed out, we have set the target for 2024 at approximately 3,500 farm inspections by local authorities and this will increase to 4,500 in 2025. This is based on a resource that has been allocated by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, for additional staff in the local authorities. At the moment we are putting in place training for those new staff members. We are doing this with the more experienced inspectors, who are already in the local authorities, and Department of agriculture inspectors, to try to generate consistency across the local authorities.