I also appreciate that processors are facing tough margins. The prices paid by the factories this September are 13% lower than those quoted in September 2000. It appears that the only response for the meat factories following the positive news of the lifting of the Russian ban was to cut prices again. In fact, prices have fallen by €95 per annum since July and, at least according to the IFA, only for the farmers' protest the factories would have dropped prices further. These price cuts have left Irish farmers in the position where Irish beef prices are the second lowest in Europe and where prices quoted across all factories and processors in Ireland are, coincidentally, identical.