Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I will come back to Deputy Creed with more detail. I will write to him during the week because I do not have statistics with me on the take-up there may have been in the meantime since he tabled that parliamentary question.

I assure him that I met individual farmers and others familiar with the sheep sector. There are concerns about the decline in numbers for some time but, thankfully, there has been an improvement in prices which was badly needed. It is an area in which I want to take a particular interest because it is one that needs some assistance and needs confidence built back into it. North of the Border, as I have gathered from speaking to officials in the Department there and the Minister, they have been finding similar problems to ourselves in the sheep meat sector, and it is an area we want to help.

I do not want to be too prescriptive, but quite a large percentage of the recommendations of the John Malone report into the sheep sector have already been implemented. Some of them are in the course of implementation as well. I do not want to state the specific percentage — I do not recall it exactly. I will send Deputy Creed a note on the sheep sector, in particular, over the next few days.

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