Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for her interesting reply. It is strange that she should issue the 2006 restructuring scheme on a Friday morning and on that afternoon write this statement, on the release of which an embargo was placed until Sunday, literally killing off the restructuring scheme for 2006. Was it because she was feeling anxious going to meet her colleagues on a Sunday afternoon regarding her disastrous position on the sugar beet and nitrates issues that she wanted to cause some means of distraction? If it was, she achieved that as evidenced by the fact that the nitrates issue is no longer on the front page of the Irish Farmers' Journal, but rather this issue is. Does she accept that if there is a major differential in the value of milk from one area to another, co-op boundaries will certainly not retain it?

Does the Minister have an answer for a young farmer — from whom I am sure the Minister of State, Mr. Brendan Smith, has also had contact, and this farmer is only one of many — as to the position in which he will find himself in County Cavan or in the lakeland dairy sector, given that he understood he was working to a two-year plan that she announced last year, but now finds that there will be no milk quota available for him to purchase this year and that he will have to lease it instead? Does the Minister believe what she has done so quickly after her announcement on the restructuring scheme will allow any restructuring to happen this year?

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