Before the present crisis, approximately 20,000 farmers were earning less than €200 per week. With the present crisis, it is estimated that another 20,000 are in danger of being forced out of farming in the very near future. Under the leadership of the Minister, if a farmer wanted to generate an income on a par with someone on the average industrial wage, he or she would require from his or her enterprise 250 head of beef stock and 165 acres of land, a suckler herd of 90 suckler units, a milk quota of 80,000 gallons, 550 sheep, 600 acres of barley or 400 acres of winter wheat. The average size farm in Ireland is 65 acres. To improve their incomes, farmers require an increase in prices for their produce and an increase in scale and productivity which requires access to more land at more favourable prices.