Mr. Kieran McEvoy:

On the land market competing against other sectors, we have to be competitive. At the moment we are not in the races. We receive phone calls from auctioneers on a regular basis because most grain is on rented land. We do not even bother watering those lands because they were out of reach at the start. I am not in a position to expand and retain land.

Our document refers to a proposal for a five-year support. That would provide me with some certainty that I would have financial assistance to make me somewhat more competitive. Sometimes that is enough to keep people on existing land or renew leases and stop things from slipping further.

Certain people are in long-term arrangements and landowners would be quite happy to stay with tillage farmers. They see a huge gap between the market and what they are getting in land rents. If we were somewhere in between, we might be able to stay in business. That is a key point.