William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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How is the Department going to stop people going out of tillage? I know three people leaving tillage. They are finished after this year. Does the Department realise the reality? The witnesses have said that the bigger person is getting bigger. The only way I know this is because when farms come up for sale, if they are not bought by dairy farmers, they are bought by the likes of Coolmore and they are all going into tillage. I certainly do not know any young person, male or female, who is opting out of what they are at and going into tillage. There is not a bank manager who would give someone a €20 note to do it in the morning. We know that when we go into the bank, the first thing we are asked is whether we are in cows. I am asking the Department to please listen. We have lost 200,000 suckler cows from the country. Whoever was here ten years ago should have insisted that the witnesses' predecessors would back the farmers to keep those cows. They are gone and they will not be back. The really good stockmen are gone and they have diversified. The same is happening in tillage. It is there before our eyes.

I thank the Department for all of the schemes it has put in place but the bottom line is that they are not enough. I would prefer if everybody who is here today sat down with the Ministers for agriculture and finance. I would also include the Minister, Deputy Chambers, because, whether people like it or not, he is the person to give enough money to the Department. If the Department does not give that money, there will be fewer people in the sector this time next year.